The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom
by Gaaras-Gothic-Ninja-Sappy-Sue
Summary: Naruto had absolutely no problem with his new apartment...That is...before he looked out his window. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Morbid Curiosity

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter One: _Morbid Curiosity_

_[Beta'd by _AkizukiSakura]

* * *

The apartment wasn't very large. With one bedroom, one bathroom, and a living room that might fit a coffee table and television, if he was lucky. The space was definitely smaller than he was used to. The kitchen took up an equally tiny corner of the apartment, though he wasn't much of a cook so he wasn't too worried about it.

Naruto smiled. He finally had an apartment for himself. He was so sick of living with his grandparents who were not only perverted, but insisted they call him his stepparents. He had lived in their house since he was in middle school and had been treated like some kind of housemaid. His "stepparents" meant well, but they had absolutely no idea how to take care of a kid. During his time there Naruto was smart enough to save up for his own place, and now he finally had it.

The neighborhood didn't seem at all bad. There were many other apartment buildings, a few houses, many corner stores, and a number of restaurants. He'd asked the landlord whether or not violence was frequent in this area, to which the landlord said no, and Naruto believed him. The landlord didn't seem like a bad person; he looked like a timid man despite the large scar that bridged his nose.

The landlord lived on the top floor, Apartment 23G. "If there are any problems, you know where to find me", were his exact words. The rent was a safe deduction from Naruto's weekly pay. New residents paid rent every two months for six months. After the sixth month he would have to pay monthly like everyone else. Naruto thought the deal was a bit too good to be true, but seeing how nice the landlord was made him ignore his skepticism.

Naruto had all his belongings moved into the apartment already. All that was left to do was unpack and fix everything up. He didn't have any furniture so it wouldn't take too long. The blond dragged a heavy suitcase towards his room, plopped it gracelessly on the floor, and began to unpack. The apartment came with a closet with enough space for all his shirts and jeans. As for the rest of his clothes, he would just have to leave them in the suitcase until he had enough money to buy a dresser.

When he**'**d finished he looked around his room. It was at that moment he realized how different this place felt from his stepparents' house. He silently looked over the small mat that he would use as a make-shift bed for the time being. His gaze roved from the mat to the wooden floor, noting the mismatched array of planks and small cracks. There were some large, dark spots on the floor that could have been from a fire. He noticed that the walls had the same blemishes and frowned at them. He really needed to repaint his bedroom.

Naruto realized how terribly depressing his new apartment looked. His parent's house let out a confining aura but this place just shouted _haunted._

He supposed that was because he was new.

Naruto's frown let up a bit when he saw the window of his bedroom. It was large compared to the other windows in the house. There were no curtains, of course, and the glass was a bit dirty, but it wasn't anything he couldn't clean. He walked over to the window and opened it. It creaked ominously but opened easily, to Naruto's surprise, so he opened it the rest of the way, revealing the darkness outside. The breeze that came in felt good. He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he saw a light coming from the building across from him. There were many other lights as well, some brighter than the one he was staring at, but what made this light so special was that it was directly across from his own window.

Suddenly, Naruto became interested in what kind of person lived in that apartment. An old woman, perhaps? A mother of three? A cold blooded killer? Naruto chuckled at the last thought; wondering what kind of person lived across from him proved to be interesting.

Just when Naruto was about to close his window, a shadow appeared in front of the window across from his own. No, not a shadow – a silhouette of a person. Man? Woman? The light was dim, so he really couldn't tell. However, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

Naruto blinked. _What was that? _The blonde shook his head and began to close his window. It was stuck. He rolled his eyes in annoyance before he began to force the window down. He paused when he caught sight of something from the window across from him once again. The lights were brighter now, and he could see the silhouette clearly.

It was man. Naruto was too far away to see the face, but he could see the man's bright red air clearly. After a few moments the light in the room dimmed and the silhouette left again, only to appear seconds after.

No.

_Wait_.

That wasn't the same person. There was another man in the apartment.

Two people?

This one had darker and longer hair than the first man. Naruto squinted, but he couldn't see this man's face any clearer than he could see the other's. The dark-haired man threw his hands in the air, apparently shouting something, before he once again left the widow.

Now Naruto felt guilty. Why was he so interested in what was going on between these two men? Someone came back to the window again, but this time they pushed the blinds down a bit – not completely, though. It was a set of those cheap transparent blinds – the ones that only served the purpose of being decorative. Through the blinds, Naruto could make out a man's body and his short, spiky hair.

It had to be the redhead, Naruto concluded. Said redhead did something with his hair and then began to fiddle with his shirt. Another pair of hands – Naruto assumed they belonged to the dark-haired man – appeared and began to help with whatever the redhead was doing.

It took until the moment the redhead's shirt came off for Naruto to realize what was going on: the redhead was _stripping_.

Naruto shut his window.


	2. Windows Need Curtains

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Two: _Windows Need Curtains_

[_Beta'd by _AkizukiSakura]

* * *

"So how's the new apartment?" asked Sakura, Naruto's fellow worker at the hotel. Naruto and Sakura worked the same shifts, so they usually had to clean the same room together. It wasn't a famous hotel, and it didn't advertise sex, so it annoyed Naruto when rooms he and Sakura were chosen to clean always had the familiar white sticky substances on the sheets and pillows. The name of the establishment was the _Silver Palace, _mainly because of its gray interior and silver painted walls. It wasn't a five star, but it was definitely a nice place to sleep in. Naruto knew this since he occasionally slept on the job, and hadtested almost each bed in the hotel.

"Oh, it's all right, I guess."

Both employees were working together to clean a bedroom that had been used only moments ago. The smell of sex and perfume invaded Naruto's nostrils as they stripped the sheets from the bed.

"It's pretty small, though." Naruto continued. "And it's kind of depressing, too…"

Sakura smirked. "So you're already homesick."

Naruto frowned at her. "Not in a million years," he muttered. "I'd rather be cramped up in an apartment than a slave in a mansion." He said it with some sort of sarcasm, but Sakura could hear the uneasiness in his voice.

"If you say so…" she said acerbically.

Naruto rolled his eyes at her obvious disbelief and changed the subject. "So…how's Seichi?"

Sakura smiled brightly. "You'd be surprised at how fast they grow," she said while tossing Naruto a pillow case.

Naruto grinned. "Oh, really? Is he another so-called prodigy like his dad?"

Sakura sighed. "He's a prodigy all right; top of his class, and with the same attitude his father had, too; maybe worse…"

Naruto chuckled. "Then I guess it's safe to say that your son's an egotistical bastard," he concluded.

Sakura frowned and threw a pillow at the blonde. "He's not egotistical, he's just bored with all the simple assignments they give him in third grade."

Naruto gave her an even look. "Speaking of bastards, how's Sasuke, anyway?"

Sakura's giggly mood faded away almost instantly and she suddenly looked gloomy. "Sasuke…" she started slowly.

Naruto took note of Sakura's sudden sullenness and stopped fluffing a pillow. "…What's up?" he asked slowly.

Sakura looked up at the blonde and smiled. "It's nothing, really…" she said shaking her head. "It's just that Sasuke…and his job…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is there something going on at the police station?" Naruto asked.

Sakura nodded sadly. "Lately, I guess with all the crime going on, he's been asked to go to the station more and more. He hardly ever comes home anymore…"

Naruto frowned. "That's not right…did they promote him or something?"

Sakura smiled. "Actually, he had a huge promotion a few months ago; assistant director of Hatake Police Department…"

Naruto grinned. "So Sasuke finally bent low enough to kiss the director's ass?" he asked.

Sakura frowned and searched for something else to hit Naruto with.

"Another pillow won't do me any harm, Sakura," Naruto teased, laughing.

He faltered, however, when Sakura pulled back her fist to punch him instead. "W-wait! Sakura, I'm just kidding!" he said as he dropped the pillow and ran towards the end of the room. He frowned when he turned to see Sakura bent over laughing beside the bed.

"That's not funny, Sakura," he huffed, walking slowly towards the bed again.

Sakura shook her head. "You should've seen your face…" She sighed. "I guess the time I hit you when we were young still haunts you…" she added**, **smirking.

Naruto pouted up at the pink-haired woman. "Nearly killed me…" he mumbled.

Sakura laughed again and grabbed the pillow from Naruto's hands. "You've been fluffing that pillow for the past minute," she commented,while adjusting the pillow against the headboard. "I think it's fluffed enough…" she paused then, to look at Naruto thoughtfully. "You know Seichi doesn't go to bed until I fluff his pillows repeatedly? He says that it makes all his dreams nice and fluffy…" she laughed a bit but it was soon replaced with a sullen expression. "Sasuke used to fluff his pillows for him…and now that he's gone most of the time…Seichi feels…a bit of resentment towards him…"

Naruto blinked when he heard the sad tone in Sakura's voice. "Maybe…" he said slowly. "…you should tell Seichi that his father is Superman. Tell him that Sasuke's out saving the rest of the world, so Seichi can be safe, too…"

Sakura smiled up at the blonde and laughed. "Look at you, giving advice for the son of someone you've hated since grade school…"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't _hate_ him…" he said softly. "Just thought he should've been… I don't know…nicer?"

It was Sakura's turn to roll her eyes. "Sasuke? Nice? I don't think so. He has his moments sometimes, but other than that he's all business… It's can be all right…but other times I wish he could loosen up and just have some fun." Then she laughed. "You know…when we finally decided to have Seichi…he treated it like a business deal. I wouldn't have been surprised if he handed me a contract…"

Naruto shut his eyes. "Oh jeez… I can't imagine what the sex was like…" he said with a small shiver.

Sakura laughed louder this time. "Naruto!"

Naruto gave Sakura an incredulous look. "Well, you can't blame me for thinking he probably writes an outline of what to do before he finally gets into bed with you!"

Sakura laughed again. "Naruto, it's nothing like that!" she said while walking over to him. "In fact…" she said slowly. "If I do say so myself… Sasuke is rather…_experienced_ in bed."

Naruto made a gagging noise. "Oh man, the last thing I need to hear is how great someone like _Sasuke_ is in bed."

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "You're the one who brought it up."

"Didn't want you to go into detail with it…" Naruto countered childishly.

Sakura giggled and headed towards the door. "Let's get out of here. I'll ask the others to clean up the floors and spray some kind of freshener that'll take away this awful smell."

Naruto gladly followed her out the door.

Naruto came home late that day; it was well into the evening by the time he unlocked his apartment door. He wondered absentmindedly if he would have time to eat as he entered his room and laid carefully on his futon. He groaned when he felt the cold material of the futon touch the skin on his face. He was still wearing his coat, having been too tired to take it off.

The hotel was _packed_ yesterday. Yesterday wasValentine's Day and today the customers had all vacated the hotel, leaving their messes for Naruto and Sakura to clean up, _and _the boss hadassigned Naruto to washing duty today, so he had to wash the sheets. That was usually not a problem, but on this particular day, the washing machines broke down, and Naruto was asked to wash them by _hand_. Hence why he came home so much later than usual. Naruto scowled into his pillow as he remembered the events.

Naruto stood up slowly from his bed; he couldn't sleep with all these clothes on. As he shrugged off his jacket he took a quick sideways glance at his window. He inhaled sharply.

The light was on.

It had been a few days since he saw...well..._that_. Despite his wariness, he still checked the window every chance he could. It wasn't that he wanted to see it again... He was just curious. And it was hard not to see through such a large window; not to mention the fact that the other window was directly across from his. Lately, however, the light had been off every time he looked, so he was surprised to see it on today. He let out a relieved sigh when he didn't see anyone. The last thing he needed was another episode.

When he hung up his jacket, Naruto felt the movement of his muscles awaken him. He didn't feel as tired anymore. Maybe he had time to eat after all? He'd made sure to stock plenty of microwavable food when he'd moved in; he didn't want to bother himself with groceries just yet. He entered the small kitchen as he pulled off his sneakers, leaving them on the floor between his room and the living room. He opened the cupboards with a yawn and took out a cup of raman. Making it took only a few minutes and when he finished eating he felt sleep approach him again. With languid steps he slid into his room and moved to close the window.

He stopped.

It was that man – the one with the messy hair. Naruto's eyes widened at the long, dark creases that traced the window across from his own. From here, it looked like someone had slapped oil onto the guy's window. It hadn't been there before. The messy-haired man seemed to be cleaning them with a towel. Naruto watched, rooted to the spot, as the man glided through the mess on his window with the cloth, staring as it smeared across the glass and only managing to dirty the window more.

Naruto started to breathe normally again. What was he getting so worked up about it? He was probably just surprised at seeing the man again. It was perfectly normal for a guy to clean his windows when it was smeared with...whatever that was.

Naruto sighed and closed his window again, hard, forgetting that his other hand was still on the window ledge.

"_Shit_!" he screamed as the window slammedonto his hand. He pulled it away quickly and shook it frantically in an attempt to make the pain go away. A single tear fell from his eye as he grimaced and licked the back of his hand with his tongue. "Shit..." he hissed again.

Almost warily, Naruto looked up at the window again. He froze. The man had stopped wiping his window and he was staring straight ahead. Straight into Naruto's window. _Straight at Naruto_.

Naruto drew a shaky breath. Had the man heard him? No. He couldn't have – could he? Impossible. Naruto continued to stare at the silhouette of the man on the other side. He didn't move, and with the shadow covering his face, Naruto couldn't really see it.

Naruto didn't know why, but he began to shake involuntarily. The man still hadn't move. He was standing deathly still, almost inhumanly still. Naruto thought about waving, but quickly went against it. Without knowing it, Naruto stepped back from his window. He doubted the messy haired man could've seen that small movement, but almost immediately after Naruto did so, the man backed away from his window quickly and moved out of sight; or, rather, glided out of sight, the movement was so fluid. Naruto didn't really have enough time to blink before the light on the other side turned off.

Darkness. Naruto shivered the hell was that? He stayed at his window for several moments before his body decided to move. It was at that moment that his palm began to hurt again – but did it ever stop hurting in the first place? Naruto wondered. With shaky steps he backed away from the window. He kept his eyes on it, however, anticipating the light to turn on again.

It didn't, and Naruto sighed. What was he doing? He closed his window slowly, careful not to harm himself, and ran his good hand through his hair.

He really needed curtains.


	3. Of Impending Dooms and Holy Shits

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Three: _Of Impending Dooms and Holy Shits_

[_Beta'd by _AkizukiSakura]

* * *

That was it. This was the final straw. Naruto was going to _murder_ his boss.

With another growl of frustration, he stalked into the messy hotel room. He was given a master bedroom single assignment. _Single _assignment. As in, he would be doing it himself. As in, it would take at least three hours to finish it all. As in, Naruto's boss had it in for the blonde.

The _Silver Palace_ wasn't a five star hotel, but their master bedrooms were still insanely huge. In fact, its master bedrooms probably made up _three_ of the four stars they were rated. Anyone who rented them was either some hotshot spending a day in Konoha City or some drunken fool coming out of a casino to recklessly spend money – and they _always_ brought a gang of people with them. Naruto couldn't remember an occasion where the master bedroom wasn't used for some kind of wicked party filled with insane people and yesterday, it seemed, was no different.

If anything, it was worse. He wasn't in the hotel last night, but the state the room was in told him all he needed to know. Christ, even the _chandeliers_ were tipping to the side, as if someone had swung across them. With another angry sigh, Naruto started to remove the sheets from the bed. He tried not to think about what possible substances were sticking to his fingers as he folded the sheets and threw them into the cart he'd brought with him. He scowled when he saw that all the pillows were missing their covers. Some of them were even emptied of their cotton stuffing.

Grunting, he trudged all over the room, collecting the flat pillows. Naruto just hoped the manager didn't feel like being an _ass_ again and make him _hand _wash all the damn sheets.

Naruto yelped when he tripped over a piece of cloth on the floor. He scowled as he stood back up to glare at the inanimate perpetrator.

Naruto wrinkled his nose. It was a pair of panties. One of those frilly pairs, too. Lace and strings, slightly wrinkled – the works. Naruto eyed the panties for a long time.

Ah, what the hell. He put them in his pocket.

From there, he continued to clean up the room – or at least he _tried_ to. He never did his job whole-heartedly – only when Sakura was breathing down his neck, and the pink haired woman had taken the day off. Naruto didn't remember the last time Sakura took a break from work, but he was in no place to be mad at her; he had taken _his_ fair share of sick days in the past year.

When he finished collecting the sheets and pillows, he dragged the laundry cart into the laundry room down the hall. In the laundry room was a storage closet that had all the cleaning appliances. Naruto didn't know anything about these things, and he never bothered to read the labels, so he proceeded to disinterestedly air freshen the air with Windex and wipe the windows with a few spritzes of Febreeze.

Four hours hadpassed since he began working on the room and, looking at it as a whole, Naruto could tell he didn't do a very good job. With that in mind, he took off his working cap and exited the room. As far as he was concerned, his job here was finished. He'd let the bed setters finish the rest.

Naruto walked down the stairs since employees weren't allowed in the elevators with his hands in his pockets. It was already a few minutes past one in the afternoon. The idiot boss had this rule that no one could leave an assignment once they'd started it, so he'd missed his lunch break. Usually they were given the time back, but it was always at least twenty minutes shorter, and Naruto never packed his own lunch, so he doubted he'd have enough time to buy something to eat.

Sighing, Naruto accepted his fate and trudged to the employee's lame excuse for a lounge. He would have to pick off of Kiba's food again, he thought with a sigh. He opened the lounge door forcefully and glanced around. He hoped he hadn't missed his dog-loving friend. No one else would've shared their food with him.

Luckily, the man he was looking for was seated just by the windows, thoroughly devouring his food.

"Kiba!" he called out to the man before walking towards the small table he had for himself. The brunette looked up for a moment, smiled cheekily with his mouth full, and nodded towards the chair next to him. Naruto opted for the one in front of Kiba instead. When he sat down he eyed the man with a devilish grin. "Hey, Kiba," he said, making a big deal of sniffing the lunch box the man had in front of him.

Kiba frowned immediately. "No way, Naruto," he mumbled, words barely discernible around the food in his mouth, "Last time, you ate more than _half_ of my food-"

"But it won't be like that this time, Kiba!" Naruto exclaimed. "That day, I didn't even eat breakfast- I was _starving_! Besides," he said as the grin returned to his face, "I've got something to trade."

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "What could you possibly have that'd make me give up my food?"

Naruto reached for his pocket with the same mischievous grin and pulled out the frilly underwear he'd found in the hotel room. He watched with amusement as Kiba paused, spoon halfway to his lips and mouth open – staring wide at the material between Naruto's fingers. There was a moment of silence before Kiba slowly set the spoon in the lunch box and frowned.

"Naruto..." he began after he swallowed. "You know I love used panties just as much as the next guy, but-"

"But what?" Naruto exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "It's a perfectly pure pair of pristine _used_ panties!"

Kiba shook his head. "I'm going to ignore the oxymoron in that sentence and just say that I'm a _little_ skeptical when it comes to the stuff you find lying around in hotel rooms..."

Naruto groaned helplessly and banged his head against the table. "But Kiiibaaa, I'm just so hungry... And you know the boss isn't gonna let me leave until like – I dunno – _ten_; especially since Sakura isn't here!"

Kiba shrugged his shoulders and returned to his food. "Sorry, buddy, but this is payback for that time you devoured my lunch. Besides, Choji told me you got stuck with that master bedroom up on the fourth floor. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust any panties that came from in there. Do you have _any_ idea of the crap that goes on in the master bedrooms?"

Naruto sighed and shook his head lamely. With a helpless grunt he sat up in his chair. "I hope you own an orange suit." he said bitterly. "You're gonna need it for my funeral. And don't be surprised when the autopsy confirms that I died from hunger and the inexplicable _betrayal_ of a best friend," he grunted with a mock glare at his friend.

Kiba only laughed and eyed the blonde with twinkling eyes. "Send me the memo," he chuckled. "I don't want to miss your _funeral_." Then he laughed again. "You still going on about people wearing orange to your funeral?"

Naruto gave Kiba a look that said 'Duh!' "You think I'd change my mind about something like that...?" Naruto asked, inwardly amused.

Kiba only shook his head, a small smile gracing his lips. "Nah, man. It was foolish of me to think that you've changed at all, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes narrowed playfully. "Is that a bad thing?"

Kiba only smiled. "You're the only thing that hasn't changed around here, Naruto." Then his smile faltered. "I just wish other people were as consistent as you are..."

Naruto frowned at his friend, and waited for Kiba to finish chewing before he spoke. "What's going on, Kiba?"

Kiba didn't say anything for a while, only staring at his food. Then he sighed and put his spoon down. "It's Shino."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"

Kiba closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head and going back to his lunch. "It's nothing." Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Kiba stopped him. "It's nothing, really. He's just...acting..._weird_."

The look on Kiba's face told Naruto that there was more to it, but he let it go. Glancing at the clock across the room, the blonde sighed and leaned back into the chair. "I should've taken my chances with the boss and just went out to buy some food..." he grumbled longingly as Kiba ate.

The brunette shook his head. "You wouldn't get away with it." he said seriously. "I swear, the boss has something against you. Remember when you took most of that Sunday off to meet the movers at your new apartment? When you left, the boss had a freaking cow! He threatened to fire you, you know." he said nodding his head.

Naruto frowned at the memory. "Yeah, he called me at my parents' house. My stepmum was the one who had to calm the guy down and coax him into letting me work again." Then Naruto put on a puzzled look. "I'm not sure about this but... I think Tsunade knew the boss..._personally_... Maybe even before I was born. Sometimes she's with him on the phone, and they always argue like crazy..."

Kiba laughed. "Oh, that's just classic. I think it's pretty obvious where it goes from there..."

Naruto urged Kiba to elaborate. Kiba smirked. "Well, as far as I see it, the boss and your stepmom had a thing, then your stepmom left him for your stepdad, hence the boss's irrational hatred towards you." Kiba concluded.

Naruto only laughed. "Kiba, please. This isn't a story book romance kinda thing-"

"It's the only logical explanation-"

"The boss isn't exactly..._logical_… Wouldn't you say so? And this is my _mum_ we're talking about. She's like..._fifty,_" Naruto countered.

Kiba laughed. "She wasn't always fifty, man. Besides, I'm just saying..." the brunette said as he took the last few bites on his food. "You had to have done _something_."

Naruto shrugged and took another glance at the clock. "I better report the room I just cleaned to the bed setters..." he said sadly as he stood up. Kiba nodded mutely and waved to the retreating back of his blonde friend.

"Stay on the boss's good side!" he yelled before Naruto could close the door behind him.

* * *

Naruto came home at _twelve_ that night, er, morning. Whatever. It wasn't very late, considering the times he used to get home while still in high school. It wasn't very late, considering the fact that seventy percent of the damn population probably never slept, and it wasn't very late, considering the fact that he was an adult. _But_ it _was_ late when he considered the fact that his work shift ended at _nine_, and his boss held him until _eleven_ freaking o' clock!

Naruto fumed as he took off his jacket, pulled his shirt over his head and chucked it across the living room. His stupid boss _definitely_ had it in for him. Not only did he give Naruto single assignments for the rest of the day, but he was put on bed setter duty as well! Naruto had never set beds before. That was Sakura's job, wherever the hell she was.

Naruto was hungry, and he was tired, and he was _hungry_. All the local stores he usually bought food from were closed, and in their place stood large supermarkets open twenty four hours; Naruto had never even entered them before. He was tempted to at least go check them out, but he wasn't ready to waste bus fare to go sight-seeing. Not just yet. So instead he opted to just go home and rummage in his cupboards until he found something edible.

With another angry sigh, he threw open a cupboard and scowled when he didn't see the easily made noodle cups, but the noodle packs instead, which took at least twenty minutes to cook-

Ah, screw it all, Naruto though bitterly. He would sleep hungry tonight. No big deal. It had happened before – but never under such _i__nfuriating _circumstances. With another angry grunt he trudged into his bedroom, weighing out the pros and cons of cursing out his boss tomorrow and quitting the job... But then he remembered he had a day off tomorrow...

"_Fuck_," Naruto mumbled under his breath as he ungracefully fell onto his make shift bed. Maybe he should call his mother...? Nah. He was too lazy to turn out the lights, but the cold wind that flew in from his window was beginning to annoy him. Sighing angrily for the umpteenth time that evening, Naruto stood up and walked over to his window to shut it.

Then he paused.

His eyes nervously looked up and flickered over to the window across from him.

He drew in a relieved breath; there was no one there. The lights were off and the windows were...dare he say..._clean_. After a few awkward moments of silence, Naruto glanced up at the window again.

...There was something about it that just seemed..._off_. He didn't know why, and he was probably just overthinking again, but the..._aura_ that built up whenever he looked towards that window across from him made him feel-

Oh, what the hell was he rambling on about? It was nothing.

With a shake of his head to be rid of the foolish thoughts, Naruto backed away from his window and settled back into bed.

He still needed to buy those curtains.

Naruto would have loved nothing more than to sleep through the entire day, but with his awful luck lately, he wasn't at all surprised when a soft knock sounded at his door. With a tired groan of devastation, he squirmed into his pillow, ready to ignore whoever the intruder was.

"Ah... Mr. Uzumaki? I-it's you landlord."

Did Naruto ever mention the fact that the walls were paper thin? Now that he knew who was at the door, it would be even harder to ignore him. With another moan, he turned to the side on his make shift bed. _Go away_, he thought.

"Ah... All right then... I'll come back another time."

Naruto groaned helplessly into his pillow. _Damn. A polite one._

"W-wait!" he shouted sadly as he scrambled up off of his bed. "Hold on!"

He didn't bother with shoes, considering the short distance to the door, and he never took off his pants from yesterday so, even with his chest bare, he was still somewhat decent. With a yawn, he opened the front door. When he did, he was surprised – not at the smiling landlord in front of him, but at the plates the man held in each hand.

Naruto's eyes went wide. "What... What is this...?" he asked carefully.

The scarred landlord laughed. "Pie," he stated simply, with that humbly-grown voice of his. "I know it's a bit old fashioned...but I always bring pie to new residents..."

Naruto stared silently for several moments before he burst into a grin. "A _little_ old fashioned doesn't cut it," he said with a shake of his head. "...uh, Mr. Landlord."

The man shook his head. "Please, call me Iruka." he said with a small smile. "I'm sorry if I woke you, but I thought 1:00 pm would be an appropriate time to give you this..."

Naruto waved his hand in protest. "No, it's not a big deal. Don't worry about it."

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Naruto looked around nervously and shifted under Iruka's bright smile. "So uh... You wanna come in...?"

Iruka's smile faltered. "Ah, no. I couldn't – I don't want to intrude-"

"Nonsense, man," Naruto said, moving aside so the older man could enter. "You brought me _pie_. The _least_ I could do is allow you in."

The older man smiled and stepped inside. Once inside, Naruto closed the door, not bothering to lock it. When he turned around to face Iruka, he found his eyes traveling to the plates in Iruka's hands. They were _steaming _– delicate fumes hovered over the brown coat of what Naruto hoped to be soft bread in a tantalizing swirl, leaving the blonde hypnotized and watering at the mouth.

Iruka laughed and gestured one of the pies to Naruto. "Please, take it, Mr. Uzumaki. Welcome to the apartment building."

"Call me Naruto..." he mumbled distractedly as he reached for the aluminum clad dessert. He winced slightly at the hot plate and his eyes widened when he realized that the plate was made of some sort of rounded painted glass. Then he raised an eyebrow at Iruka's other hand. "Who's the second pie for?" he asked carefully with narrowed eyes.

Iruka began to hold the second pie with both hands. "It's for another newcomer to the apartment building."

Naruto put the pie down on the kitchen counter and crossed his arms. "Tell you what, Iruka," he said seriously. "Be a pal, and give that pie to me?" he proposed with the same solemn eyes. And Naruto was serious. He always had a big appetite. The cupped noodles he brought with him to the apartment didn't even last two days in his presence. And when was the last time he had _pie_? Surely _one_ wouldn't be enough.

Iruka laughed. "Haha, I'm afraid I can't do that, Naruto," he said amused. "But I'll tell you what: If the person isn't there, I'll gladly give it to you."

Naruto frowned and put a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

"...Naruto?" Iruka asked with a slight frown. "Is there something wrong?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm trying to think of a way to kill whoever that pie is for before you get to their door," he said flatly.

Iruka laughed, hard this time, and put a hand to his face in a gesture of politeness. "Your stepmother didn't say you were funny," he wheezed between laughs.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, not at all surprised. "Figures my stepmum would try to locate me," he muttered bitterly, pushing off of his counter and walking into his living room. "Uh, listen, Mr. Landlord-"

"Iruka."

"_Iruka_," Naruto corrected as he grabbed the shirt he'd thrown to the side that night. "I'm...not doing anything today so... What do you say to me coming with you to deliver the pie...?" he asked carefully.

If possible, the smile on the landlord's face grew. "That would be lovely, Naruto." Then he paused. "...as long as you don't plan on killing the resident to get the pie..." he added with mock-narrowed eyes.

Naruto laughed. "I wouldn't do that...or at least I'll..._try_ not to..." he assured as he pulled the shirt on.

Iruka shook his head gleefully. "I suppose you're not going to wash up before you leave?" he asked knowingly.

Naruto only looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Why?" he asked, sniffing his armpit. "Do I stink?"

"Not yet." the older man with false worry.

Naruto only laughed at him. "You don't have to worry about that, Mr. Landlord – I hardly sweat."

Iruka smiled and walked towards the door. "We'll take the elevators, anyway," he said with a sly smirk.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and grinned. He liked this man, he decided. It had only been a very short time, yet he found himself very comfortable with him already. Hmm... Maybe it was just the pie?

Once Naruto hurriedly soothed his bed hair, straightened his shirt, and pulled on his sneakers, he headed towards the door and opened it for the older man. "So, where are we going, Mr. Lanlor – _Iruka_."

Iruka stepped out of the small apartment and nodded towards the elevator. "We're going to building 1313," he informed the blonde as he waited for Naruto, who was fiddling with the lock on the door.

Naruto's ears perked up. "Building 1313?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are we leaving this building?"

Iruka nodded his head. "Yes," he said as they both walked down the hall towards the elevators. "I own building 1312, and my partner owns building 1313," he added with a small laugh. "We live together now, so it is as if we own both."

Naruto smiled at that. "So...you guys are going out?" he said mischievously. "How freaking romantic – two landlords hooking up. Is she pretty?"

Iruka blushed and looked down. They had both reached the elevator doors and Naruto was mercilessly pushing the button. "Uh... A-actually, _he _is a sort of...uh…a retired policeman... He inherited ownership of the building from his deceased mother..." he said timidly.

Naruto paused in his staccato button pressing and looked up to see the red face of his land lord. "...uh..." Naruto gulped. "..._He_?"

"Ah-ha ha- the e-elevator's here!" the older man said quickly as he dashed inside the open doors of the elevator. Naruto lingered outside the door with wide eyes, but darted inside the contraption when the doors began to close. Iruka had already pressed the button for the first floor and, as the elevator moved, there was an awkward silence between the two.

Naruto, not being able to take it anymore, spoke. "U-uh..." If only he knew what to say to something like this. He knew he wasn't offended...or anything... Was he? He'd _heard_ about it before...but...

Shaking his head, Naruto blew all the negative thoughts away. "I-I..." he started. "...don't really mind..." he finished lamely. "I-I mean… Now that I think about it… I don't think… I could really see you as...um…er..." Ah, crap. What had he gotten himself into? Was he about to say that Iruka acted _gay_? He hardly even knew what gay was.

Silently watching Naruto's inner struggle, Iruka laughed with a shake of his head. "Tsunade said you would react that way."

Naruto looked up to face the man with a raised eyebrow.

"She said you were a nice boy." Iruka clarified with a small smile. "And yes. My partner is a _he_."

The doors to the elevator opened, and Naruto followed Iruka with a dazed look. "Uh..." he started while rubbing the back of his head. "What's his name...?"

Naruto watched with amusement as Iruka's ears reddened. "Hatake Kakashi," he said with a small smile.

Naruto's ears perked at that. "Hatake? As in Hatake Police Department?"

Iruka nodded his head. "That's the one," he said with a grin.

Naruto affected a confused expression. "I have a friend who works there...and Hatake is the chief of police, isn't he? So your partner is-?"

"Ah, no, no, no," Iruka interrupted, opening the door of the front entrance of the building. "That's his _father_."

Naruto silently "oh"ed in understanding. "Oh...so...he's just a retired police man then...?" Then he frowned. "Wait… Is he like..._old_?"

Iruka laughed and shook his head. "No, just lazy." he said as if recalling a good memory. "He quit before his father could fire him for being an incompetent police officer..." he commented slowly as they exited the building.

Naruto raised a confused eyebrow but nodded his head in understanding nonetheless. They were outside now, and the blonde shivered at the breeze. He'd forgotten how cold it was. Iruka looked down at him with a smile and pointed to the building across the street. "That's our building," he said with a smile. "Conveniently right across the street."

Naruto paused. Hmm. So it was _that_ building...

He followed the older man across the street. "You know, this is actually a coincidental chain of events," Iruka continued, grinning. Naruto looked up at him, tacitly asking him to continue. "A man, maybe a few years older than you are, moved in here a few weeks before you did," Iruka continued as they reached the entrance of the building. He opened the door and stepped aside so the blonde could go in. Naruto muttered a 'thank you' as he hurried in, rubbing his cold arms.

"Really?" Naruto asked distractedly as he walked to a spot between the stairs and the elevator. "Which floor?"

Iruka smiled and nodded towards the elevator. "Fifth."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "That's...uh...pretty coincidental."

Iruka nodded and pressed the button for the elevator once, unlike Naruto's incessant pushing, while balancing the pie on one hand. "I've been trying to give him his welcoming gift for weeks," Iruka mused with a slightly frustrated tone. "But he's never home." Then he shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose he's still settling in."

"Or maybe he sleeps all day like I usually do," Naruto said with a small laugh. Iruka laughed with him and turned to face the elevator doors. There was a comfortable silence between the two before Iruka spoke again.

"Oh, I almost forgot." he said with turning to the blonde. He still had the smile on his face. "That's not where the coincidence ends."

Naruto turned to look at Iruka's profile curiously.

Iruka nodded his head to confirm Naruto's tacit wish for him to go on. "Well you see – he asked for the same conditions as you did," Iruka started with a smile. "He wanted a small apartment – very cheap and something along those lines."

Naruto didn't know why, but as he listened attentively, he had the strange feeling of...impending doom. He shook his head and listened on.

"Naruto, what is your apartment number?" Iruka asked with a sly smile, as if he already knew the answer.

Naruto thought for a moment. "Uh...5F," he said slowly.

Iruka's smile grew wider and he turned finally turned to face the blonde. "So is his." Then Iruka turned to look at the elevator doors again.

Naruto blinked. The attentive smile on his face was fading slowly. "He has the same apartment number?" he asked quietly. He watched Iruka nod. Naruto blinked again. He was missing something. The feeling of impending doom was echoing in the back of his mind loudly now, and his heart...his heart... What did it know that he didn't? Why was it beating so hard? So what if someone had the same apartment as he did, and so what if they happened to be in a building across from-

Wait...

_Across._

As in...parallel. As in... Face-to-face… As in…

Holy _shit_.

Naruto shivered suddenly and he turned to Iruka with wide eyes. "H-hey...Mr. Landlord?"

Iruka "hmmed?" and pressed the elevator button again, but didn't look at the blonde.

"Uh… I-if this guy...has like...the same apartment number... Does that mean he can..." Naruto struggled to find words. "Are we like...?"

Iruka frowned and turned to look down at the blonde. "What is it, Naruto?"

Naruto put on a nervous smile and shook his head. "It's nothing... I was just wondering. If we're like..._across _from each other... Y-you know... If I can see him from my apartment..."

Iruka "oh"d and turned away again. He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "If I remember the blue prints of the buildings correctly, then yes..."

Naruto's heart sank.

"You could probably see each other from your living room windows," Iruka concluded.

Then Naruto's heart came back to life. Haha, he thought, letting out a relieved sigh. He saw an old woman's apartment from his living room window. Thank goodness-

"Ah, no," Iruka spoke up suddenly, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. Your _bedroom_ window. Our buildings are parallel at the _bedroom_ windows," he corrected with a smile from catching his mistake.

Meanwhile, Naruto's heart stopped.

Ho...ly..._shit_.

It was at that time that the elevator doors opened. "Finally." Iruka muttered as he entered. But all Naruto could think of was-

Holy shit.

Then he blinked. He was being foolish-

"Naruto, the doors are going to close."

Holy _shit_.

Naruto entered the elevator with hesitant, shaky steps and stood beside Iruka. Iruka laughed, oblivious to Naruto's inner struggle and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

Only one thought flew across Naruto's mind as the doors shut.

_Impending doom_.

When the elevator began to move, Naruto's eyes, if possible, widened.

Holy shit.

Second floor.

Holy _shit_.

Third floor.

_Holy shiiiit._

Fourth floor.

_Holy shit!_

Fifth floo-

"Naruto—?"

"Holy shit!"

Iruka, surprised at Naruto's sudden outburst, had to steady the pie with both hands as Naruto began to claw at the door.

"I-I can't do this!" Naruto exclaimed.

Suddenly, the elevator door opened to reveal the...long...cold..._dark _hallway of the fifth floor.

Naruto's eye twitched. Impending _doom_.

Doom, doom, _doom_-

"Naruto?"

Naruto turned to look at Iruka with wide eyes. He laughed nervously. "U-uh…" he began lamely. "I..."

"Naruto, what's going on?" Iruka asked, sounding truly concerned.

Naruto shook his head and kept the smile on his face. "I just remembered," he said finally. "I have something to do," he clarified, looking away. "I uh...have something...to do."

There was silence between the two for several moments before Iruka nodded. "Well...all right..." Iruka said slowly before stepping out of the elevator. "I will... See you later?"

Naruto nodded, fake smile still plastered on his face. "Yeah. And uh… Do-don't forget that pie!" Naruto said gleefully, though it was accompanied with a nervous laugh.

At the mention of pie, Iruka smiled and nodded his head. "Oh, yes. I won't forget," he said with a shake of his head. He paused and looked at Naruto with slightly suspicious eyes. Naruto cowered under his gaze. Luckily, the elevator doors began to close. "Oh. Uh, t-take care, Naruto!" Iruka said with a small wave. Naruto managed to nod before the doors closed.

Then...

...he fell to the floor in the corner of the elevator.

Freaking hell, he thought pathetically. What was wrong with him? What the _hell_ was wrong with him? With a shake of his head, he stood up from the floor. Now he was embarrassed. Why did he act that way? What on earth was he so scared of?

Naruto put his hands in his face. Probably confrontation. What if the man recognized him as the one always snooping in on his window from time to time...? What if...what if that guy knew what Naruto saw the first night he stayed at his new apartment...?

Naruto moaned and pulled his hands away from his face as the elevator door opened to reveal the first floor and many people standing outside of it. With a sigh, he walked out of the elevator, making his way back home.

He had a lot of explaining to do, he thought. Not so much to Iruka, but to himself. He was still confused as to why he acted that way. Confrontation was a scary thing, but the way his heart began to beat so rapidly in his chest proved that somewhere, in the subconscious of his mind, there was something more to it. _Instinct_.

Upon entering his own apartment, his eyes traveled to the pie that sat at his kitchen counter. He smiled.

How pathetic he was for thinking such things. The man across from him was probably just a normal guy, who was about to receive a pie just like he had. And he was probably going to smile at the pie, and he was going to thank Iruka for welcoming him... And then he would eat the pie. Happily. Like any _normal_ person.

Naruto was being foolish, he realized. He was being scared for nothing. If he were to meet this mystery man, they would probably laugh at the coincidences and get to know each other over pie.

The blonde shook his head with a smile. He would have to apologize someday – if they ever had the pleasure to meet. That's right, Naruto thought gleefully. It would be a _pleasure_ to meet this guy.

It was at that moment that his cell phone began to ring. Naruto looked around hurriedly. Where did he put that contraption anyway? He followed the sound to his bedroom and found his cellphone on the floor, vibrating beside his makeshift bed. He picked it up without looking at the I.D and answered it.

"Yeah?" he said casually.

"Narutooo..." he heard a female sob out.

Naruto's eyes went wide. "S-Sakura?" Sakura didn't answer for several moments, and all the blonde could hear were sniffles and quiet sobs. "Sakura, what's wrong?" Naruto asked worried. Out of habit, he walked towards the window and leaned against it for support as he listened to the pink-haired woman cry.

"I'm s-sorry, Naruto," came the weak reply. "It's just..." she sobbed again and he heard a faint 'Seichi, it's fine. Mama's fine.'

Naruto frowned and pressed his ears harder against the phone "Sakura, what's going on?"

Another sob. "It's Sasuke," Sakura whined.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "What happened? Did he hurt you-?"

"No, no, Naruto- I-it's not that."

"Then what is it, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed in a harsh, frustrated tone.

Sakura let out a loud cry. Naruto's eyes dimmed with guilt. "I'm sorry, Sakura," he apologized quietly as more distant sobs and quiet shuffling sounded on the other line.

"Don't be, Naruto." Sakura said once she calmed down. "It's... It's just that...the police station called a-and... Sasuke... He..." There was another pause, and Naruto waited patiently, listening to the uneven breathing of his friend. "He..." Sakura continued. " He wasn't _there_."

Naruto frowned. "Sakura, he's probably on his way home. I don't think his shift is over ye-"

"He hasn't _been_ there, Naruto!" Sakura shouted suddenly. "He hasn't come home in _weeks_."

Naruto blinked. "But I thought you said he was-"

"I thought so too..." Sakura breathed pathetically with another sob. "But the police station called to ask..." Sakura let out another gulping sob. "They...they asked to know when Sasuke planned on coming back... Because he hadn't been going to work for _months_, Naruto!" She ended her statement with another shout. "He's been lying to me!" she yelled hysterically. "He never got a promotion! Th-the chief told me that he-"

"Sakura, calm down. I can't understand what you're-"

"Sasuke's missing! He's _missing_, Naruto! What part of that don't you under-" Sakura stopped abruptly and Naruto heard a crash from the other line. "Sakura!" he shouted worriedly as he began to pace.

He heard a muffled curse from Sakura before some shuffling. "I'm sorry, Naruto." Sakura breathed after several moments.

"Sakura, I-"

"I have to go now, Naruto."

"Sakur-"

"Goodbye, Naruto."

_Click_.

Naruto blinked and stared at his phone. Wha...what the hell? With a frustrated growl he threw his phone against his bed and turned to face the window angrily. He set his elbows against the ledge and stared angrily out the window. _Sasuke, bastard_. He thought angrily. He was always the one to make Sakura cry. _Always. _It pissed Naruto off to no end. Forget the fact that Sasuke had _everything_ Naruto ever wanted out of life: A _beautiful_ wife, a kid who was the spitting image of himself, and a job where he could protect people _and_ support his family, and still, the bastard took _everything_ for granted.

With a huff, Naruto raised his eyes to glare at the window across from him. He had to visit Sakura, he thought suddenly. As soon as he cleaned himself up, he had to visit his longtime friend and find out what exactly was going on.

With a sigh he pushed himself off the window and stood up straight.

When his eyes glanced down, he was surprised to see Iruka walking down the street. The corners of his mouth twitched but he resisted the urge to call out to him. Then he noticed something: Iruka didn't have the pie anymore. Naruto gave a wry, knowing smile, his previous minutes with Sakura not allowing him to grin as he would usually do.

Iruka coming out empty-handed meant that the redhead was probably doing what Naruto thought he would. He was probably eating the pie and enjoying it and laughing at how old fashioned Iruka was-

His eyes traveled to the window across from him. His thoughts stopped when he saw something flicker.

The light...it was _on_.

He found himself rooted on the spot, and his heart began to speed up again.

Then Naruto shook his head. _Stop it_, he urged himself. He was being stupid. There was nothing to be afraid of. With little hesitance, he smiled and looked straight at the window fearlessly, waiting for something to happen. A few moments passed and that flicker stayed as nothing more than a simple flicker. Naruto scoffed bitterly at himself. He was being foolis-

Wait...

...What...?

Naruto's eyes went wide.

What was...what was..._that?_

...

...

Oh...

...dear...

God.

Naruto's spit was caught in his throat. As his eyes widened at what he just witnessed.

In a flash – not even a second's worth of time – the window across from him pushed open to reveal the redhead he'd seen before. And in that flash, he saw everything he'd missed before. In that second – no _half_ a second – he saw the paleness of the man, he saw the redness of his hair, he saw the darkness around his eyes, and he watched with blue eyes widened in horror as the man fluidly revealed the pie in his other hand and with one smooth motion threw it _out_ the window.

Crch_- Splat._

...

...

The sound echoed in Naruto's ears. _Splat_..._splat_... _**crch**_ _splat_.

Naruto found himself staring at the mess below.

The pie...it... It _hit_ someone.

Naruto shook slightly. _Strawberry, _he thought lamely. His eyes stared at the red streaks of jelly as they decorated the floor. That..._was_ jelly, right? Naruto felt something within him gag. No... No that...t-that..._wasn't_ jelly.

There were people surrounding the scene, and there was...a-a _person_ on the ground. Naruto couldn't hear anything. He was in_ shock_. All the shouts and voices below were muffled – all he could see was red...red..._red_. There were some people looking up in vain to see find culprit of the catastrophic mess. Naruto didn't need to look up to know that the redhead was out of sight now, windows closed, lights off.

A moment passed when Naruto fleetingly remembered the feel of the hard, cold, _glass _plate that pie was in. The glass plate that just fell on someone's head. The glass plate that was scattered in hopeless remains on the ground right next to a spasming old man bleeding at the head with blood oozing profusely out of his-

_Gag_.

Naruto tried to say something. _Snap out of it, _he thought. But all that came out was a lame mumble.

With a shaky breath he leaned away from the window, not once checking to see if the redhead was still there. His trembling feet brought him to the bathroom, where he stumbled against the sink and leveled himself with his arms against the porcelain ledges. He looked up at the mirror, staring at the look of absolute horror that played on his pale and trembling face.

...

...

"H-holy-..."

Pause.

No.

Not yet.

Wash your face.

Breathe_._

_Breathe._

Okay.

Now you're ready...

...

...

"H-holy _shit_."

* * *

End of Chapter

Word Count: 6,538

A.N: Only Gaara can cause cataclysmic events with a pie.


	4. The Incident in Mushroom City

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Four**: **_The Incident in Mushroom City_

[_Beta's by _AkuzukiSakura]

* * *

Naruto treated the accident like it was something he'd seen on the news channel—something that happened in some distant place at some random hour during an arbitrary second—and none of it had anything to do with him. He treated it like he was watching television. It's just a _show_, haha. No one got hurt. It was all illusions—invisible mirrors—_magic_. Yes. That was it. _Magic_.

Those were the only thoughts that allowed Naruto's trembling body to exit the apartment building; well**, **that and the thought of Sakura**,** of course. Sakura was the important matter at hand. She was the reason why Naruto was walking rather quickly by the mass of people all gathered around the red and white screaming ambulance as it carried the hurt and very much alive old man on a stretcher.

Naruto ignored the chatter of the nosy females and tried to avoid the policemen who were littered everywhere in their traditional navy blue uniforms. Naruto's nervousness somehow heightened his senses because all he could hear were the interrogating questions — the repetitive, annoying, monotones of, "Did you see who did it?", "Did you see who did it?", "Did you see who did—"

_Yes!_ Naruto wanted to scream. He knew — he _knew_ who did it. Then why, oh _why_, was he getting on the K17 bus to Sakura's house and leaving all the questioning police officers behind?

To poke at his conscience, Naruto's eyes fell on the familiar sign, "If you see something, _say _something."_ But I don't want a pie thrown at my head!_ Naruto mentally screamed at the sign. Why didn't policeman understand that snitches got _stitches_, not riches? If he said something, Mr. Pie would undoubtedly _find _him and _kill_ him.

This thought made Naruto pause as he sat onto a chair on the bus. What the hell was he talking about? Kill him? Who was Naruto kidding? No one was going to kill anybody. He was overreacting again. He was blowing things out of proportion — he was being _paranoid_. He should stop coming up with these absurd conclusions and just _chill_. The redhead threw a _pie_ out of the window. Not a knife, not a _bomb _— a _pie_. Loads of people threw pie out their windows.

Naruto nodded his head. Yes. Loads of people threw pies out oftheir windows. It wasn't the redhead's fault that he _forgot_ about the hard glass platter under the pie before he threw it out… Hell, if someone threw something as measly as a _pencil _out the window someone could get hurt. That's right. The redhead, _carelessly_, forgot the potential dangers of throwing glass plates out windows.

Naruto tried to content himself with this reasoning, but there was a nagging question in the back of his head: why did the redhead throw the pie out the window in the first place? Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. Maybe he didn't like strawberry? Hmm. Maybe he didn't have a big enough trashcan at his own place? Maybe it was an easier way to throw out the trash? Maybe he just didn't _like_ pie?

Naruto laughed. Now that was just silly.

Or was it?

Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Now_ he_ was being silly. He had to think of something else now. Anything else. Why was he even on the bus — oh, yeah — _Sakura _— how could he forget? He looked out the window of the bus. What stop was he supposed to get off anyway? Crap, did he _miss_ his stop?

Naruto slapped his cheeks. _Focus_, he told himself harshly. _Sakura's place is an hour away_.

With a sigh Naruto leaned back into his seat. He had to think of something other than dangerous pies. He had to think about Sakura. Yes. That could distract him for hours. Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. Beautiful Sakura, tall Sakura, married to Sasuke-bastard Sakura, pink-haired Sakura, pink-hair-that-was-suspiciously-close-to-red Sakura, red-like-a-strawberry Sakura, red-like-blood Sakura, bloody-like-the-ohmygod _someone was almost killed by a pie!_

This wasn't working. Naruto groaned. He couldn't stop thinking about it, but could he really blame himself for that? He'd witnessed a crime. Accidental or not, it had sent someone to the hospital. He had to say something. Naruto's eyes fluttered a bit at his revelation. He was suddenly a little bit calmer with his resolution. He would tell. That was all there was to it. Maybe that was why he was so paranoid right now. He couldn't keep what he saw to himself. It would rot his soul from the inside. He would tell, and then he would feel better. It was as simple as that.

Finally at ease, Naruto let himself relax. He was sure the police would still be asking questions when he came back from Sakura's place. He would tell them what he knew, and all would be well. With a contented sigh Naruto let his mind travel to his pink haired friend…

* * *

Naruto got off the bus in a rushed motion. He'd missed his stop. Figured. He didn't go too far further; he only had an extra five minutes ahead of him, but it still annoyed him how he could fall asleep on the bus like that. His friend was in trouble, and what did he do? He fell asleep on the bus.

Sakura's neighborhood was easy and hard to miss at the same time. It was a large neighborhood that could either startle a person with its tall houses and beautiful lawns, or bore a person with its peacefulness — the ringing silence that lay like an intangible blanket over the entire neighborhood. Naruto took a big sniff. Sakura's neighborhood also had a particular smell. It smelled like May — just before the summertime when flowers were giving off their last spurts of pollen into the air. The smell was like the dull undertone of a dying flower, and the wind felt soft like decaying petals.

Naruto smiled. He loved Sakura's neighborhood. Mayflower Avenue. Naruto walked towards Sakura's place, watching as the houses got bigger and bigger until he finally arrived on Sakura's block — the block with the tallest house of all.

He paused. Up ahead, he could see one shiny police car on the driveway of Sakura's extravagant home. Naruto felt his heart jump in his heart for more than one reason. The first thought that came to his head was, Did they follow Naruto? Did they know what he saw? Were they here to question him? It took Naruto several moments of standing still to realize how stupid he was being. The police couldn't have followed him; they were at Sakura's place first. Besides, how would they know if Naruto knew anything? It wouldn't make any sense.

The second thought that went through Naruto's head was a more rational thought. Sasuke was back. That seemed likely, what with the way Sakura hung up the phone like she did. Probably was ecstatic to see her husband again, and out of a fit of joy pried her ears off the phone to greet her man. Naruto wrinkled his nose. Yeah. That was likely.

Then again, there was always a chance that the policeman was here to question him…

Naruto walked towards the house cautiously; for all he knew, the policemen were waiting behind the bushes waiting to bust him.

He made it to the front doorstep unharmed — cue relived sigh. With a small, wary look to the police car in the driveway, he rang Sakura's doorbell. He was answered with silence. He rang again. Nothing.

Naruto frowned. Maybe no one was home. Then he snorted. _Yeah_, he thought sardonically, _maybe Sakura took the cop to lunch for coffee and a donut_. Naruto rolled his eyes. There was no coffee, and there were no donuts. He was being ignored.

A deep, annoyed feeling rumbled in his chest. He hated being ignored. Ever since he was young he would go to great lengths to be noticed. He wasn't going to stop now. With a tight frown, he knocked on the door instead of ringing the doorbell; he doubted incessant doorbell ringing would bring anyone to the door. But then he stopped. There was a policeman inside the house. If anything — maybe out of annoyance — he would arrest him for, let's say, disturbing the peace. Naruto huffed and rang the doorbell again. He didn't do it hard — he did it lightly enough and with enough gaps in between each one to catch someone's attention without getting in trouble for it.

After what Naruto exaggerated to be a million doorbell rings later, he heard the soft patter of footsteps behind the door. He muttered a 'finally' as someone on the other side began to undo the locks.

The door creaked open just a tad and Naruto could see the green eyes of a familiar pink-haired woman look up at him. Naruto tried to smile, but the gesture was halted by the disastrous look in Sakura's eyes. She had bags under them and dark spots above them. The green in her eyes changed into one of murky water. It was as if she had not seen sunlight in days.

"Sakura…" Naruto whispered with wide, concerned eyes. Sakura only shook her head. She blinked slowly up at Naruto with eyes so bleak that Naruto shivered. "Sakura…" he tried again. "What's going on?" Sakura said nothing and for a while both adults stood silently, looking into each other's eyes and yet not looking at the same time.

Surprisingly, it was Sakura who broke the silence. "They say he doesn't want to be found, Naruto," she croaked out in a small voice. Her dull eyes betrayed the anguish in her voice and out of instinct, Naruto reached for the pink haired woman and pulled her into his arms.

"Sakura…" he whispered into her hair. He didn't know why, but he felt as if Sakura needed this. She needed someone to hold her right now. With closed eyes, Naruto waited for Sakura to shove him aside like always and scream about how he was getting too close for comfort, but Sakura surprised him again by wrapping her small arms around the blonde as well. Naruto tensed for the smallest second before he tightened around the woman. He kissed the top of her head and nuzzled into her pink hair. Sakura had always smelled good.

They stood there for several moments with Naruto rubbing Sakura's back nervously and Sakura breathing quietly into Naruto's chest. It was a small cough that startled them into separation.

"Ahem," interrupted a voice from inside the house and Naruto's eyes went wide before he pulled away from Sakura's soft body to look up at the intruder. His mouth formed a line of understanding when he saw two policemen with arms folded onto their chests staring into Naruto's startled eyes.

"Sakura," said one of the policemen. Naruto cringed at the familiarity in the man's voice. He had the longest hair he'd ever seen on a policeman and the strangest, _lightest_ eyes he'd ever seen. Naruto figured he was a handsome guy, what with his tight jaw and his broad chest and those bored eyes that irritated Naruto every time he saw them on Sasuke.

"Ms. Haruno, may I ask who this is?" questioned the policeman to the left of the Sasuke lookalike. Naruto's eyes softened at this policeman. He was a heavy man and his eyes were slit-like frowns so it seemed as if he was permanently happy and amused with everything.

"This is Naruto," Sakura explained, completely pulling herself away from Naruto's embrace. "He's my friend. H-he…" she paused for reason unknown to either of the men. "He was…he was Sasuke's friend too." Sakura looked into Naruto's eyes when she said that and Naruto suddenly understood. Naruto nodded with a small frown. "Yeah," he agreed lightly, "he was my friend."

The long-haired policeman looked at Naruto for a moment before nodding his head. Sakura made a strange motion with her mouth before she waved for Naruto to come in. As if on cue, the two policemen walked towards what Naruto knew was the living room. He followed them, pausing as he waited for Sakura to lock her door, before walking with her to the living room.

It was strange seeing two big men clad in police uniforms in Sakura's house. He'd seen Sasuke with police uniforms in Sakura's house before, but Sasuke was Sasuke. Naruto was used to seeing him around Sakura, no matter what he was wearing. Naruto wrinkled his nose when the heavy policeman plopped down onto Sakura's flower-printed couch, and he squirmed uncomfortably at the narrowed gaze the brunette was giving him. Naruto really had no idea what was going on. Sasuke was missing, he knew that, and from what Sakura had just told him, he assumed Sasuke didn't want to be found. He was tempted to break the silence and just ask what the hell was going on, but the long-haired policeman beat him to it.

"Naruto, was it?" he asked in a voice too direct to be polite. Naruto nodded stiffly as he made his way to one of Sakura's couches. He and the large policeman were the only ones sitting. Sakura was leaning against the wall by the extension of her kitchen with her arms lazily crossed against her chest. She had a distant look on her face. Naruto didn't like that. The brunette stood next to the couch where his partner was sitting. His hands were still crossed over his chest with an aura that held so much authority it made Naruto cringe. "When was the last time you spoke with Sasuke?"

Naruto frowned. Again with the familiarity. These guys obviously knew Sasuke better than he did if the way they spoke his name so loosely was any indication. "The last time I saw him was…" he started with a thoughtful tone. "…Maybe a couple of months ago," he decided with a shrug. He really couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the bastard. They weren't exactly on friendly enough terms to meet for coffee regularly or anything.

The long haired policeman did not hide the discontent in his face. "That doesn't help us," he muttered bitterly. "Everyone saw him around that time."

"_Neji,_" Sakura scolded in an exasperated, yet warning, tone.

The policeman – Neji – looked at her for a split second before turning to frown back at Naruto. "What happened when you saw him two months ago?"

Naruto hated the way the long haired policeman spoke to him — like he was some petulant child who was useless and needed a spanking. "We _talked_," Naruto spat involuntarily; he didn't want Sakura to be upset with him for angering a police officer.

Neji's frowned deepened into a scowl. "What about?" he shot back.

Naruto wrinkled his nose in distaste. This guy was getting on his nerves. "We were just talking," he replied with a huff. "He was boasting about his new stupid case like always and—"

"What case?" the heavy policeman interrupted with interest.

Naruto blinked and looked at him. "Case?" he asked the chubby man stupidly. The heavy policeman nodded his head fervently.

"Yeah," he said in an easy voice that Naruto liked. "Sasuke was on this case before he—"

"Choji." The pale-eyedpoliceman interrupted viciously. "He doesn't need to know the details." Then he paused to look at the woman standing in the corner. "Not unless Sakura wants him to."

Choji comically widened his eyes before putting his head down. "Right. Sorry."

Naruto frowned. The he continued. "Uhm… Sasuke and I met because he was picking up Sakura from work…" he started cautiously. He figured he would tell them the entire story if it was that important to them. "Sakura was getting ready in the employee's lounge so he and I had a little chat." He paused to look at Sakura, who was staring at him intently. He raised an eyebrow. "He and I aren't really on…the best terms…" he said lamely before wiping his hands on his jeans. "But we were civilized enough to talk to each other without killing each other." Naruto smiled then. "Then he just started talking about some case he was working on, and how he was 'totally going to get that new promotion', and—"

"Did he say exactly what that promotion entailed?" interrupted the long haired policeman again.

Naruto frowned in thought. "No…not really," he said slowly. "He just said it would change his life — and he said it would change Sakura's life too, now that I think about it. He was pretty excited, and kind of happy; well, happy for him, anyway. Sasuke wasn't much for showing his emotions."

The heavy policeman laughed. "Isn't that right," he mused happily.

Naruto would have chuckled with him if it wasn't for the angry eyes of the long haired man and the desperate eyes of Sakura. "What else did he say, Naruto?" Sakura asked with wide eyes. "Did he say anything about the case? Did he say that he would be long for a long time — do you think he knewthe case would be dangerous—?"

"Ms. Haruno," interrupted the heavy policeman in the most serious tone Naruto hadheard from him since he'd first heard him speak.

Naruto blinked before he turned to look at Sakura. "He…didn't really go into depth about what he was supposed to do…" he replied lamely. "He didn't act as if it would dangerous though!" he added as a last thought, hoping to sooth Sakura somehow. Sakura gave him a lame smile before looking away in sadness. Naruto's face fell. But then he remembered something else. "Sasuke also said that he would make the boss eat his words," he added with a nod of his head. "Yeah…he was pretty angry at his boss for some reason."

Naruto was surprised when he saw a look of pain flash across both police officers' faces. There was silence all around before Neji shifted uncomfortably. "That proves it then," he sighed, expression pained. Naruto let his look of his confusion show but Sakura beat him to his question.

"Proves what? What does it prove?" she asked frantically, pushing herself off of the wall and striding over to stand in front of both policemen. "_What_ does it prove?"

She had to step back when Choji stood up and clasped her shoulders. "We explained the details to you already, Ms. Haruno," he said with a shake of his head. "If what your friend said here is true…then Sasuke probably went looking for—"

"_No!_" Sakura cried with a desperate shake of her head.

Naruto, totally thrown off by the utter despair that he heard in Sakura's voice, stood up and rushed to her side. "What's going on? W-what was Sasuke looking for?"

The long haired man seemingly annoyed with Naruto's presence, tore into his left back pocket and yanked out a roll of paper. He seemed to hesitate before he handed the paper to him. Naruto eyed the paper apprehensively before unfolding it. He expected some kind of bomb to fly out, but instead all he saw was a picture. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Who is this?" he asked slowly.

Neji took the paper. "That's who Sasuke went looking for," he replied with a deep frown. "Gaara Kaze—homicidal maniac."

Naruto blinked. Then he shivered. _Gaara_. The name coursed through him like a snake, coiling up his spine until he felt a tingling sensation at the back of his neck. He resisted the urge to scratch. Then he reached to take the paper back from the long haired man. Surprisingly, Neji complied, handing the paper back to Naruto.

Naruto squinted at the picture. It was a young boy, maybe a young man now if the date below the picture was any indication. The person in the picture couldn't be more than thirteen years old, with light brown hair that just graced his shoulders, eyes that had light bags under them, and the tiniest smile forming at his thin lips.

Naruto blinked. "He looks harmless," he commented softly. He ran a finger over the dark marks under the boy's eyes. Why he look so familiar..?

"Don't be fooled," replied Neji in a chastising tone. "At the age of twelve, he stabbed his father twenty six times in the chest and burned his uncle alive."

Naruto's eyes widened, and he almost dropped the photo in shock. Now he felt tainted for just _looking_ at the guy's picture. He gave the photo back to Neji, and paused when he saw Sakura's anguished face.

"Sasuke's looking for that…_monster_," she croaked, voice indicating that she was very near tears. "He's looking for him after the director told him _specifically_ not to. The director _told_ him it would be dangerous!" she all but shrieked, and Choji shook her shoulders again. Sakura pulled out ofhis hold and latched onto a startled Naruto. "Naruto!" she cried. "You have to _find _him! You have to find him like you did last time!"

Naruto did all he could to not shut his eyes at the memory of when they were younger, and pulled Sakura into a tight hug. "Sakura," he said softly, "I still don't understand what's going on…"

Sakura looked up at Naruto without letting go of him. "If they tell you all the details, will you look for him Naruto? Will you find Sasuke?"

Naruto gulped under Sakura's penetrating and desperately expectant gaze. "Sakura… I—"

"You know very well that he won't be of much use to anyone, Sakura," Neji interrupted again with a demeaning frown. "He is not authorized to know any of the information we have on Sasuke and his disappearance, much less authorized to help _look_ for him."

Naruto would have been angry if it weren't for the fact that the man saved him from having to explain to his dear friend that he couldn't look for her husband. Sakura moaned helplessly into Naruto's chest. "Please, Naruto…" she begged, and Naruto finally felt the wetness dripping down his shirt. "You have to find him. Only _you_ can Naruto. Sasuke has always responded only to _you_…"

"He'll have nothing to respond to if Kaze has killed him already," Neji sneered scathingly, and Choji gasped in horror before hitting his partner in the arm.

"You're not helping, Neji!" he whispered harshly back at the brunette. But it was too late; Sakura let out a loud moan and a gushing sob that wracked her thin body. The wetness in Naruto's chest only worsened, but he held Sakura tighter.

He still had almost no clue what was going on. Sasuke was missing. Yeah, he got that. Sasuke was looking for some guy to get a promotion…? That part still confused him.

"Could you at least…" he asked with a thoughtful frown, "tell me what's going on? Like…why Sasuke is looking for this guy in the first place…?"

The two policemen looked at each other, and Choji shrugged. "Why not?" he said. "It was on the news for a month before they pulled it off air…" he added quietly before turning to look at Naruto. "The guy's got a long history," he explained with a shake of his head. "He's screwed in the head I tell you… Like…_really _messed up… You know?"

Naruto frowned. No, he didn't know.

Neji seemed to sense his confusion and took over where Choji left off. "Gaara Kaze was arrested for murder at the age of twelve. He was sentenced to life in prison — with parole. He was known to behave well in prison, so two years later, when he was fourteen, he was released; though, officials had to keep track of him at all times, and he couldn't leave the country. He went back to school a two years after his release. Four years after his initial release, there was a report of mass murders in Mushroom City, a town west of—"

"I know where it is," Naruto interrupted with wide eyes. "I used to go to school in Mushroom City…" he murmured, disturbed.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "What school?"

"Mushroom Heights."

Neji smirked. "That's a middle school." he said lightly. "I suppose you also attended Mushroom High — the new building for Mushroom Tech. They weren't going to allow students back into the old school after the murders."

Naruto's eyes widened. "The mass murders were in Mushroom Tech?"

"Yes." Neji nodded with a frown. "Twelve teachers—"

"Sixty three students," Choji finished with a sad shake of his head. "Seniors."

Naruto's eyes widened in a way that could have almost been called comical had it not been for the situation. "_Sixty three_ students?" he rasped out and unconsciously held onto Sakura tighter. "I remember hearing something about Mushroom Tech getting closed down when I was younger…but I never had the smarts to get into that school anyway so… I guess I never really thought much of it…" Then Naruto frowned. "But it's still impossible. I would've heard about the murders! I would've—"

"It happened around the time Sasuke ran away…" Sakura mumbled up at him, cutting him off with tears still in her eyes. "You left the school to look for him around the time those murders took place…I-it was the year we entered High School Naruto." she clarified softly. "By the time you came back with Sasuke…Gaara had been sentenced and the fervor was over…"

Naruto pulled away from the pink haired woman completely. "That's impossible." Naruto spat disbelievingly. "I think someone would have _told_ me if—"

"Mushroom Tech was a small school, Naruto…" Sakura said calmly, reaching for him to embrace him again. "And we had our own problems, remember? With Sasuke gone, and you looking for him, there was no way that—"

"But what about _you_, Sakura?" Naruto all but shouted. "You knew about it, why didn't—"

"Naruto, at the time I was so stuck on the idea of you finding Sasuke that I really didn't care about— "

"But you still _knew_, Sakura!" Naruto said with exasperation and disbelief thick in his voice. "You didn't think news like that would matter to me when I came back?" he asked with hands tightening around her shoulders and eyes narrowing at her.

Sakura put her head down. "If it wasn't for the situation we're in right now…" she started quietly, "It wouldn't have mattered if I told you what happened in Mushroom Tech…"

Naruto paused. She was right…but… "But you told _Sasuke_, right?" he asked with accusing softness. Sakura stiffened in his arms.

_Ah_, Naruto thought lamely. That explained things a bit. When Naruto brought Sasuke back after two months of searching, Sakura thanked him with tears in her eyes and…and that was it. She didn't speak much to Naruto after that. She spent all her time with Sasuke, and Naruto watched as they got closer….and closer…and closer. Naruto let Sakura go lightly. "You're right," he mumbled. "It wouldn't matter if Sasuke wasn't missing right now…"

He stepped away from the pink haired woman and was annoyed to see the smug look on Neji's face.

"So what now?" Naruto asked with a small sigh. He needed to get over the fact that Sakura was totally infatuated with Sasuke and would never feel the same way for Naruto. It was only natural that Sakura would share important things like mass murders to Sasuke instead of him. Only natural. "From what I can gather…" Naruto said when no one answered. "Sasuke's run away again to fulfill another one of his _pride_ _assurance _adventures."

Neji snorted.

"I can't promise anything…but I guess I can try and help you find him. I'll keep an eye out—"

"This is way over your head, kid," said the chubby man. "Sasuke's not on an _adventure_. He took a case that was too big for him, and for all we know, he might be in danger."

Naruto heard Sakura let out another shaky sob.

Neji spoke again. "It didn't take much for us to realize that it was Gaara who killed all those people in Mushroom Tech. He did nothing to cover his tracks, and surveillance cameras caught almost his every move." Naruto realized that the pale-eyed was going back to the story. "Officials found him a few days after the incident. He was arrested, sentenced to life in prison — without parole."

Naruto blinked. "How old was he when he was arrested again?"

Neji shrugged. "He was still seventeen when he was arrested, and became an adult on the day of his sentence. It worked out pretty well for the officials."

"So…he was sentenced on his birthday?"

Neji nodded his head absentmindedly. "Like I said, it worked out well for the officials. There was no hesitation about putting an adult in prison for life."

Naruto blinked. He really couldn't argue. After all, the guy murdered sixty three students.

There was silence in the room for long moments. "Well…" Naruto started softly. "Why did this guy kill all those people?"

Neji looked up at him with a scowl. "Never try to understand a murderer's motive," he said sternly, as if reading it from a book. "You question them _after _you've captured them," he added roughly. But then he paused. "But if it will put some of your questions to rest…he killed what would have been _his_ graduating senior class—class of 2005."

Naruto gulped. "All of them?" he asked apprehensively.

Neji smirked at Naruto's obvious fear. "All of them." The long haired man paused before speaking again. "Gaara stayed in prison for seven years."

A silence fell upon them as Naruto waited for Neji to continue.

"He escaped almost a year ago."

Naruto gulped. Holy shit. He didn't really know how to take all of this in. Sasuke was missing, looking for some homicidal maniac on the loose…for a promotion? It didn't make sense to Naruto. They weren't telling him something. They were keeping an important detail to themselves.

"Why is Sasuke looking for him?" Naruto asked delicately. The two policemen looked at each other before Neji shook his head.

"Pride assurance," he repeated dismissively. Naruto knew it was a lie, and he frowned, but before he could protest, Neji was already turning to face Sakura. "Sakura, we'll continue this meeting tomorrow. If you'll excuse us…" Neji took a step towards the front door, but Sakura dashed in front of him to open the door for him like a polite host.

Unlike his partner, Choji's eyes were trained on Naruto thoughtfully. "Hey," the chubby man said suddenly. He put a hand into his pocket, pulled out two sheets of folded paper, and handed them to the blonde. "Here's some info about the bastard," he said with a smirk. "It's got his photo in there too, so if you see something, _say _something."

Naruto ignored the guilty pang in his chest and nodded. Choji tipped his hat to the blonde before following Neji and Sakura out of the house. Naruto stared at the two folded pieces of paper for a moment before he opened them. The first page showed multiple mug shots of the man. Naruto's eyes widened at how much the man changed over the years. It went from black and white school photos in elementary school to the colored mug shots of him standing with a number plate in his hands. '19108' they all read. Front view, side view — even the back of his head. Naruto shook his head in pity. Some people were just brought up the wrong way…

He looked up when he heard Sakura's small footsteps re-enter the living room. She had her hands folded on her lap and she looked everywhere but Naruto's eyes.

"Naruto…" she began in a pleading voice, and Naruto resisted the urge to pull her into his chest again. "I need… I need someone to…" she paused, and then shook her head. "No — forget it," she said with a small smile.

Naruto frowned. "Sakura, what is it?"

Sakura looked up at him with large eyes. "I need…" she turned away again. "I need someone to take care of Seichi."

Naruto almost fell over. His stutter of shock was painfully audible, and he melted under Sakura's desperate gaze. "Sakura…" he started with wide eyes. "You know I can't… You know I _can't_ do that."

Sakura didn't reply for long moments. Then she shook her head sadly. "You're right." She said with a fake smile. "I shouldn't have asked…"

Naruto's brows furrowed and he walked closer to the pink haired woman. "Why don't you give him to your mother?" he asked carefully.

Sakura shook her head. "She wouldn't know how to handle Seichi…" she said with exasperation in her tone.

"And what makes you think _I _would?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Sakura gave him a small smile. "Because you've dealt with Sasuke almost your entire life…" she answered softly.

Naruto's lips pressed into a thin line. More of a reason why he didn't want to take care of the brat. He would be exactly like the bastard, he knew it. "Sakura, if you need help to take care of him, I'll come over if you'd like, but I can't — I mean, I'm not sure if this was what you were asking before — but I can't take him _home_ with me. It's not a good place for a kid."

Sakura startled Naruto with the pained expression that appeared on her face. "I don't think _this_ is the right place for him either…" she said in a voice so thick that Naruto recognized it was the beginning of tears. Sakura shook her head and sat on the couch as she grimaced. Naruto was immediately at her side. "Naruto…" she moaned helplessly. "This morning…" she began with a tear sliding down her face. "I…" A sob. "I _hit _him."

Naruto blinked back at Sakura with a concerned frown. He could understand where Sakura was coming from, if only just a little bit. Naruto didn't get the big aversion to beating kids, God knew _he_ was beaten loads of times before and _after_ Grandma Tsunade took custody of him, but Sakura was a pure woman who never really believed in violence despite her strength and her violent tantrums back in grade school. She wasn't beaten when she was younger, and this was her son, the son of a man she had loved for years before their marriage. Naruto could understand how this might be affecting her.

"It wasn't your fault, Sakura…" he said lamely. "You did what you had to do to put him in place." It was the best that Naruto could come up with. Tsunade hit him not only to put but to _engrave_ him in his place.

Sakura shook her head. "You don't understand, Naruto." She said with exasperation. "I hit him for no reason." She mumbled. "He dropped a couple of pans onto the floor when he was trying to grab something from the cabinet, and I just… I…"

Naruto put an arm around the pink haired woman. "It's all right, Sakura…"

"I hit him," she breathed with another shake of her head, "I hit him so hard. Then I sent him to his room without dinner…"

Naruto paused with a furrowed brow. He didn't like the way Sakura's vice lowered to one of confused insanity.

"And you know what he said to me?" she whispered without looking at the blonde. "He said, 'I wish dad was here'…'" Sakura stayed silent after that. She put her face into her hands and sighed. "I'm nothing without him, Naruto…" she said suddenly. "Seichi doesn't listen to me unless Sasuke is around, or unless I lie and promise him that Sasuke is coming soon…" Naruto frowned when he heard her sniff. "He screams and throws tantrums when I pick him up from school instead of Sasuke…and on more than one occasion…" Sakura's voice grew more and more high pitched, "he told me that he _hated_ me…"

Naruto brought a soothing hand to Sakura's back and he sighed. "And you really think that me taking him home with me will help things?" he asked seriously.

Sakura looked up from her hands and with a tear streaked face nodded her head. "_Yes,_ Naruto."

Naruto felt his heart die a little at what he knew to be horrors to come. "All right then…" he said softly. "I'll take him home — but only for a week!"

Naruto hardly got the last part out before Sakura's arms were around him again with an embrace so tight and thankful.

"Thank you, Naruto." she said into his chest. "You have no idea how much I need this — how much _Seichi_ needs this."

Naruto frowned. "I don't see how this helps anyone…but I'll trust you Sakura…"

Sakura only smiled at him and shook her head. "We need some time away from each other, he and I…" she said softly. "I love him, and I know he loves me. I think we need some time to separate so we can both realize how _much_ again." Then she laughed. "Besides," she added with humored mischievousness in her eyes, "I think he needs someone to teach him to be less of a spoiled brat."

Naruto smiled down at the pink haired woman, "Well, then," he teased triumphantly, "that's my _specialty_."

Sakura let out a small giggle before she stood up from the couch. "You don't have to take him today," she said as she walked to the kitchen. "You can take him towards the end of next week. Maybe Friday, so you won't have to take him to school the next day."

Naruto stayed on the couch as he watched Sakura rustle around in the kitchen.

"I'll even let you borrow the car for a week so it won't be too much trouble going to work and back. Oh-wait." She paused to look at Naruto. "Work. Will your working schedule clash with the time you spend with Seichi? Because if it does then—"

Naruto shook his head quickly. The last thing he wanted was to disappoint Sakura. "No, no. It's all right. The boss has been really nice to me lately. He'll understand." It was a damn lie of course, but it was worth the beam that spread across Sakura's pale face.

"Good," she said with relief thick in her voice. Then she turned back to whatever she was doing,

Naruto tapped the sides of the couch awkwardly. "Where is the little brat anyway?" he asked casually.

Sakura inclined her head upwards. "He's upstairs in his room," she replied fondly. "I'm making him a sandwich." Then she smiled at Naruto. "I'm making one for you, too."

Naruto felt his heart soar. _Food._

Naruto let that thought content him for the time he remained at Sakura's place.

* * *

"So you're gonna play nanny for a week?" asked Kiba before he blew a puff of smoke out of his mouth. The smoke didn't come from the cold, like Naruto would have liked it to; instead it came from the burning cigarette between his best friend's lips.

Naruto nodded with a frown on his face. "Yeah. Sort of," he said, still eyeing the cigarette in Kiba's mouth. "I was going to ask you to help me out… But seeing as you seem to have your own problems…" he trailed off, knowing the dog-lover would understand exactly where he was getting at.

Kiba shrugged his shoulders. "Things have been…" he shrugged again and blew out more smoke. "Weird," he finished.

Naruto nodded in distant understanding edged with worry. Kiba wasn't a smoker. He'd gotten into the habit when he was hanging out with a bad group of friends towards the end of high school, but Naruto had gotten him _out_ of the habit — or so he'd thought. Kiba only smoked when something awful happened, like the time his sister got into that car accident, or when he was totally stressed out. He wanted to ask his friend what was wrong, but he knew that was the last thing Kiba wanted to answer right now, so instead he sulked with the guy.

It wasn't as if Naruto didn't have _reason_ to sulk. It turned out that the boss wasn't going to give him any break for having to take care of Sakura's kid. He was sure that if he didn't do something soon, the stupid man would make Naruto work _extra _hours when he had to take care of the brat. Naruto sighed. He would have to bring out the big guns. He would have to ask his Grandma for help. Naruto shivered at the thought.

Naruto turned to look at Kiba – who was looking down at the ground with dimmed eyes – again. Naruto frowned. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to ask what was wrong. He knew something was up when Kiba gave Naruto his lunch without any protest, and when he asked to go outside for a smoke on their lunch break. Naruto wrinkled his nose. He would accept the consequences — he would ask his friend what the hell was going on.

"Hey, Kiba, what's going o—"

Naruto stopped when he spotted a familiar figure in the distance. He smiled and pointed. "Hey look, it's Shino!" Naruto beamed and waved at the man, but he jumped when Kiba's head snapped up in wicked speed.

"What the _fuck_ is he doing here?" the dog-lover spat out in a voice that startled Naruto.

"Kiba?" the blonde asked with wide eyes. Shino paused from a distance for a moment before he began walking towards the two.

Kiba flinched so violently that the cigarette flew out of his mouth. Either that or he spit it out, because Naruto really didn't have that much time to come to conclusions as he watched Kiba stalk over Shino and push him roughly in the chest.

"Kiba!" Naruto shouted pushing himself up off the wall to charge after his friend.

Kiba ignored him. "What the _fuck _are you doing here?" he shouted at Shino, who was still stumbling backwards a bit from the blow. "Who the _fuck_ gave you permission to come here?" Kiba shouted again, aiming another fist at the taller man's chest.

Shino stopped him with a hand grabbing onto his wrist. Naruto stopped at his tracks behind Kiba. "Kiba!" he shouted in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing?"

Kiba ignored Naruto again and tried to aim a second fist at Shino's jaw. Shino caught that wrist too and the round of his glasses turned to look down at the dog lover. Even without seeing Kiba's face Naruto could practically feel the teeth bared angrily at Shino.

"Kiba!" Naruto shouted again, sick of being ignored by his friend.

Instead of Kiba, Shino turned to look at him. He saw the glasses on Shino's face shimmer faintly before he nodded his head at Naruto. Naruto almost rolled his eyes. Only Shino would greet someone in the middle of struggle against the strength of an angered man. Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Shino cut him off. "It is all right Naruto," he stated calmly. "He's just riled up."

Kiba thrashed. "It's _not_ all right! Get your fucking disgusting hands _off_ of me! Get _off_!"

Shino let go. He had no time to dodge the fist that came flying for his face the next moment.

Naruto shouted something incoherent as Shino fell to the floor, glasses flung to the side and broken. Naruto had to chase after Kiba as he dipped to continue punching the man on the ground. "Kiba!" Naruto shouted as he hooked his arms under the flailing arms of the smaller boy.

"Let me go! Let me fucking go so I can kill the bastard!" shouted Kiba, voice filled with rage. Naruto finally succeeded in pulling the brunette away from Shino, who was getting up from the floor. Naruto's widened just a bit when he saw Shino's naked eyes. He'd only seen the marvel of those glassy orbs that changed color with every movement a few times before.

Naruto looked down at Kiba when the man suddenly went limp. "Let go of me," he said. Naruto hesitated before he let go. Kiba stepped forwards to Shino again and Naruto put a hand on his shoulder in warning. Kiba pulled away from the touch viciously and stalked over to Shino again. The two of them were inches apart when Kiba spoke. "Don't you _ever_ come near me again," he hissed so quietly that Naruto had to strain his ears to hear.

Shino looked down at Kiba impassively. He didn't nod in understanding or shake his head in protest. Instead he stared down at Kiba with eyes flickering between an intense shade of glassy blue and turquoise green. Naruto gulped. There…there was a spark of _something_ between his two friends. He could almost taste the hate and anger that Kiba directed at Shino, but the look Shino was giving Kiba right now was…

Kiba whipped away from Shino's intense gaze and marched towards the hotel entrance. Naruto opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he saw the crowd that had gathered to witness the spectacle. He blushed. Then he turned Shino. The man was bending down to retrieve his broken glasses. When he straightened himself up he looked at Naruto with those eyes. They were a solid hazel color now. "Naruto…" he started softly. "Tell Kiba that I'm still going to wait for him by the bridge." Then he paused to narrow his eyes determinedly. "Every night." Then he turned to walk away.

Naruto raised his eyebrows.

_Weird._

* * *

The week had been very strange. Naruto shook his hair free of water as he exited his shower. Naruto had never thought that he would have to go through so much drama only two weeks after he moved into his new apartment. With a sigh he buried his face into his towel and yawned. His boss had been generous today. He was given permission to leave the hotel an hour before his shift was over. Business wasn't bad, so Naruto had no choice but to consider the possibility that his Grandmother had actually spoken to his boss when he asked her to.

Naruto shook his hair free of more water as he exited the bathroom. He dropped his towel haphazardly on the ground and groaned as he stretched a bit. He looked in his drawers to look for the boxers he would sleep in tonight. He frowned at the pile of dirty clothes he piled up in the corner. He really needed to find a laundromat or something.

He hummed as he searched through his drawers. Tomorrow, after work, permission from his boss or not, he would have to leave early to pick Seichi up from Sakura's house. Naruto sighed. He was not looking forward to taking care of the kid for the week. Alas, this was for Sakura, and she needed a break.

Naruto pulled on a pair of red boxers and fell down on his bed with a yawn. Because his boss let him go so early, he had time to go do a little shopping. He'd discovered _E-Mart_ just a few blocks from his house and a donut shop that had donuts to _die_ for.

Naruto lazily looked to his side so he could look at the window. From his position in the bedroom he couldn't see the window across from his own; instead he saw the dark starless night sky. The blonde frowned. When he came home the other night from Sakura's house, the policemen were gone. No one was questioning anyone, and everything was as calm as they had been before the accident. Naruto wrinkled his nose. He doubted he would've uttered a word if the policemen had asked him anything. With a sigh Naruto turned away from the window to eye the two folded pieces of paper on the ground next to the bed. He'd hardly even glanced at the sheets after he'd gone home.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Naruto reached for the folded pieces of paper. He grabbed them from the floor, grunting from stretching his arm so far, and unfolded the pieces above his head. _Gaara Sabaku Kaze_, it read in large letters in the front page. Beneath those bold letters, Naruto saw the pictures he'd seen before. The blonde shook his head as he went through the pictures one by one. With each photograph, it was like a streak of innocence was pulled away from the guy's face. The pictures went from small smiles, to small frowns, to completely blank expressions.

Naruto's eyes widened just a bit at the last picture. It was a little bit larger than the rest, and it was in black and white. Kaze was standing in front of a blank wall with a number plate in front of him.

Naruto shifted a bit as he did a once over on the photograph. _Hmm_. The man was handsome. Naruto was in no shape or form homosexual, but he could recognize when someone was handsome the same way a woman could. He had felt the same way when he saw Sasuke the first time, albeit this feeling didn't come with the hatred and jealously.

Naruto's eyes glanced over that chiseled jaw line, and he nodded once at the high cheekbones, but out of all his facial features, Naruto had to say that the one that caught his attention the most was the man's eyes. He had a darkness under them that Naruto faintly recognized in the previous pictures, but Naruto knew there must've been another reason why he was so fascinated with them. Eyes like that would have been misplaced on a face any less perfect than Kaze's, Naruto noted with another nod of his head. They were large and sharp, and if it wasn't for the lack of eyebrows (Naruto raised his own brows at the killers _'lack of'_) every facial expression would have been apparent on the man's face. Naruto pursed his lips. He knew that eyes like these would probably be able to glare like a motherfather.

But there was something else. Naruto almost felt..._familiar_ with the strange eyes. The way they were looking at the camera showed no malice, no fear, no...anything. They were impassive, and paired with the way the man tilted his head slightly in the photograph, it was almost..._inviting_. Naruto shivered. He threw the two sheets of paper to the side without looking at the second page and ran a hand through his hair.

When Naruto's eyes landed on his window again he rolled his eyes; the world had bigger problems than pie throwers. They had a homicidal maniac loose on the country. If he _was_ in the country. The blonde selfishly hoped that the mass murderer wasn't.

Naruto shivered a bit before closing his eyes. He wondered where Sasuke was… Then he wondered where in the world a dangerous man like Kaze would hide.

Naruto just hoped it wasn't anywhere near his neighborhood.

* * *

End Chapter

[Beta'd by AkizukiSakura]

**Author Notes**

_Word Count: 9,000 words_

Here are some stimulating questions, to keep up with important details.

1. Why does Naruto feel as if Neji and Sakura are familiar ith each other?

2. Why did the mysterious Gaara Sabaku Kaze kill his papa, uncle, and seventy-five innocent civilians?

3. Could Sakura be hiding something?

4. What's up with Kiba and Shino?

5. Why does Naruto think Gaara's eyes are familiar?

Also, I've been asked more than once if this is really a GaaNaru story or just a General non-pairing fic. It's GaaNaru.

_Naruto_: H-hey wait! But it says in this chapter that I am, and I quote, "_in no shape or form homosexual_!"

_Author_: *Points to the part of the story where Naruto says, "_Hmm_. The man was handsome."

_Naruto_: ...

Until next time.


	5. When My Heart Sings, Doom

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Five: _When My Heart Sings, "Doom"_

_[Beta'd by AkizukiSakura]_

* * *

Naruto growled under his breath for the umpteenth time that hour. In all honestly, it had been an awful morning. He'd burned himself on the stove that morning, he'd almost gotten hit by a car while walking to work, his boss was trying to pile loads of work on his lap before his shift was over, and Kiba was being a royal prick.

"_Look_," Naruto said, blue eyes narrowing at his friend for all he was worth. Kiba didn't look at him, choosinginstead tocontinue scowling at the floor. The blonde rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what the hell is going on between you and Shino, but if I have to cover your ass one more time for not doing your job, I swear, Kiba, I'll do something…really…bad."

Kiba looked up at Naruto then, and raised an eyebrow. Naruto stared back shamelessly. He knew he was lame, but Kiba had to understand that he was getting fed up with him. "I'm really sick of your sulking, Kiba!"

Kiba scowled and looked away. "You don't have to do anything for me, Naruto. If Orochimaru wants to fire me, let him fire me. I don't give a damn."

Naruto made a feral sound in the back of his throat before throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "Damn it, Kiba; you're being such a drama queen!" Before the blonde could even put his hands back down, Kiba stood before him and shoved him against the wall. Naruto choked out something incoherent before looking up at Kiba incredulously. "W-what the hell is wrong with you?" he all but shouted into the dog-lover's face.

Kiba growled into Naruto's face. "I'm no fucking _queen_, asshole," he spat out, pushing Naruto again and stalking out of the employee supply closet.

Naruto stood pressed against the wall for several more moments before letting out a tired sigh. He pushed himself off the silver wallpaper and ran a hand through his hair. Already, he knew that it was going to be a god-awful day.

* * *

"Seichi already knows you're picking him up."

Naruto nodded to Sakura as he opened the door to the SUV he would burrow for the week. He figured it would be best to get the car before he and Sasuke's son went to his small apartment; he didn't want the almighty mini-Uchiha to feel like _too_ much of plebeian this week. He got into the vehicle easily enough. He hoped he still knew how to drive; it had been ages since he slipped into the driver's seat. He would leave out the part where his license expired a long time ago to Sakura, but the picture on his I.D was accurate—all he had to do was scratch out the expiration date.

"Naruto…" Sakura said as Naruto rolled the window down. "_Thank you_," she added sincerely, smiling another one of those teary smiles. She leaned in to kiss Naruto on the cheek. "You have no idea how much I need this, how this means to—"

"Sakura," Naruto interrupted with a small grin. "It's all right. I get it." He smirked at her and saluted. "Just call me when you want to see him," he said**,** starting the car. "If not, I guess I'll see you at the end of the week."

Sakura smiled and backed up so Naruto could move out of the driveway. She gave a small wave and Naruto nodded his head, saluted again, and drove away.

* * *

Figured.

Seichi's school was probably bigger than his apartment building.

Honestly, what did these kids need a skyscraper for? Of course he was exaggerating, but he wouldn't be surprised if the entire _Silver_ _Palace _could fit in _one_ of their classrooms.

"You'll know him when you see him," Sakura had informed him somewhat mischievously, but Naruto wasn't prepared for how right she was. Out of two _glass_ double doors came a small boy, skin as pale as heated porcelain, with wild hair and a glare in his black eyes that made Naruto want to punch him: In other words, an exact replica of Sasuke.

Sure, Naruto had seen the kid before, but he'd grown monumentally since then. The boy walked straight ahead, along with a line of students practically marching behind him. A tall woman that resembled a cat, only with wrinkles instead of whiskers, walked alongside them.

There were other lines of students as well, exiting out of different sections of the row of double doors. They all had their own equally catlike old women standing beside them.

Naruto, who had been standing alone in front of the school a minute ago, was suddenly surrounded by parents coming out of their cars. One by one each kid recognized his or her parent and was pulled away from the line. Naruto's eyes widened a bit at the suddenness of the scene.

It was then that he figured he should probably step up and take Seichi too. So he did.

"Excuse me, sir," the tall woman said in a tone that reminded him of his grandmother a few minutes after she smoked. Naruto hadn't even taken three steps towards them yet. "Are you lost? This is a school and I'm afraid your presence is—"

"Oh—" Naruto interrupted lightly. "I'm here to pick someone up," he assured her quickly. The woman stared at him for a while. Naruto felt uncomfortable, but not as much as he felt offended. Why did the woman immediately think he was lost? Was it the clothes he was wearing? He looked down at himself. He was a bit casual today, wasn't he?

"And exactly who are you picking up?"

Naruto looked up. "Uh, Sasuke—ah, no—_Seichi_."

Said boy looked up at Naruto then. He raised an eyebrow, glared, and began walking out of the line towards him.

The woman stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Uchiha, do you know this ma—"

"Is he your butla'?" interrupted a girl's voice. She stood behind Seichi in the line. She was small and had dark pigtails that lay on the sides of her caramel skin.

She had an accent, Naruto realized with a slightly raised eyebrow. It was similar to the one he remembered his mother—his real mother—used to have, albeit this girl had less of the Manchester drawl that his mother used to exaggerate.

"No…" Naruto said lightly. "I'm a friend of his parents."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "What is your name?"

"I'm Naruto."

"Hullo Naruto." It was the little girl who responded. "My name's Jenna. Jenna Sampson. Seichi and I are going to get married."

"We are _not_," Seichi shot backquickly. He turned to the girl and glared.

Naruto watched this with wide eyes, struggling not to snicker. _Would you look at that?_ He thought. It was just like in elementary school, with Sakura's ultimate devotion to Sasuke and Sasuke's blatant refusal.

"Mrs. Uchiha did mention something about you…" the cat-woman said lightly. "Her description seems to match you, but as I'm sure you are aware of, Mr. Uchiha is in the police force and there have been incidents when Seichi was used as a means to harm his father."

Naruto's eyes didn't betray the fact that he was suddenly taken aback. "Oh," he replied lamely. "I—uh, I'm not—I would _never_—should we call Sakura?"

The woman eyed Naruto for several moments before shaking her head. "No." She let go of Seichi's shoulder. "Seichi has the means necessary to contact anyone should he find himself in danger. Don't you, Seichi?"

The boy offered her a swift nod before walking towards Naruto with that steady, doubtful glare. Naruto offered him a small smile before turning back to the woman. "School starts at 7:30, right?" he inquired.

"7:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; eight o'clock on Wednesdays and Fridays; and ten o'clock on holidays," the woman responded mechanically. Naruto sweatdropped animatedly, nodded, and turned away. _They come to school on holidays? _he thought, somewhat incredulously

He watched in wonder as Seichi inched around and waved to the girl. "Bye, Sampson," he intoned lowly before quickly turning again.

Naruto wanted to laugh. He guessed Sasuke's son was better than Sasuke in some ways if he actually initiated a farewell, but it figured that he would call her by her last name.

"Bye, Seichi! See ya Monday!" The girl waved at Seichi's back empathetically before her own parent—or was that a _butla'_?—came and took her away.

As soon as they exited the premises of the school building to walk to the car he'd borrowed from Sakura, Seichi assumed a closed-up role. He walked quickly ahead of Naruto, as he'd already spotted the car. He stopped in front of the passenger door and glared as Naruto walked more sedately, taking his time to reach the vehicle.

Naruto let his own steady, no-nonsense stare settle on his face. Already, he knew that this kid, no matter how subtly different he was from his father, would give him a hard time. _It'll be like dealing with Sasuke-bastard all over again…_

He pressed the alarm that would automatically open all the doors when he was in arm-distance of the car and raised an eyebrow when Seichi plopped himself right in the front passenger seat.

Naruto paused before putting the key into the ignition. "You can't sit there," he stated, pointblank. He let Seichi see his raised eyebrow.

The boy only glared up at him and continued to put on his seat belt. "Mom and Dad always let me sit in the front."

"Do I look like your mom, or your dad?" Naruto responded easily.

"No, you look more like the shit that smears across the floor after someone steps on it," the boy responded just as easily.

Naruto choked on something that could have easily been his own spit before he sighed and pulled the key out of the ignition. "You still can't sit here. You're too young. Get in the back."

Seichi crossed his arms. "No. You're violating my rights," he said snidely, glaring up at the blonde.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "What _rights_? It's the law. Get in the back or I'll shove you in the back—"

"That's what they said to Rosa Parks, and _she_ didn't move."

Naruto would have rolled his eyes again if he wasn't so shocked. "R-Rosa _Parks_?" he exclaimed incredulously before laughing. How old was this kid? Seven? And the school was teaching him about Rosa _Parks_? "Listen kid," Naruto said, taking off his seat belt. "I'm not getting in trouble for you flying out of the front window if we crash, so just get in the back seat, and you'll get home in one piece."

"Eat my shit."

A throbbing nerve inside Naruto's head popped, and he didn't waste any time lunging across the car to angrily undo the raven haired boy's seatbelt.

Seichi screamed when Naruto attacked him and waved his arms furiously, banging at Naruto's head. "Get off me!"

Naruto only growled and pulled the seatbelt apart. He held the boy by the waist and pulled him out of his own car door, holding him over his shoulder.

"Hey! Hey!" the boy screamed.

Naruto ignored the stares from people across the street and opened the back door, hastily put Seichi in there, and closing the door. He raced back to his own door, closed it, put the key into the ignition and sped out of there.

"Put on your seatbelt," Naruto said gravely as he looked at the rearview mirror. Seichi was laying on his side, back to him, shoulders shaking. He didn't respond. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"Take me home…" Seichi mumbled against the leather seats.

"Your mom doesn't want you home right now," Naruto replied casually. He held back the sympathy in his voice for a reason.

There was silence from Seichi for a long while before he replied. "I _hate_ her."

"You don't _hate_ her," Naruto sighed, but his tone was unsure.

"I do," Seichi insisted**,** sitting up. "She hit me. And now I know why," he added, glaring up at the blonde from the rear view mirror. "It's because she hangs out with the likes of you."

Naruto didn't hide his anger at those words. "Listen kid, when you don't listen to an adult, you'll pay the consequences. Your mom was probably wrong for hitting you, and she's beating herself up over it, but you better know now that I won't have any damn qualms about knocking you into shape when I feel like it, got it?"

The boy glared at Naruto more before he leaned back angrily in his seat and put on his seatbelt. "You heard Mrs. Eartburn," Seichi said quietly. "I have the means necessary to call for help if I feel I'm being harmed."

Naruto snorted. "Well, keep that _necessary_ _means _close, 'cause unless you're gonna follow my rules, you're going to be using it a lot," he finished with a huff. He contemplated getting on the highway. Sakura told him it would be much faster getting home, but he decided against it. Chances were, this kid was going to make him angry enough to swerve the car over the bridge.

Seichi stayed quiet for most of the ride. It was when they reached Naruto's neighborhood that he began to speak again. "The police station is near here," he murmured. "Can we go see my dad?"

Naruto blinked. Sakura hadn't told her son that Sasuke was missing? The blonde shook his head. "Your dad is really busy," he said, but even to him the words sounded hollow. "He's probably out fighting crime or something," he added halfheartedly, with a small smile. "As much as I hate to admit it, I heard your dad is pretty awesome. They probably give him all the best jobs and make him busy all the time…" he trailed off when he noticed the expression on Seichi's face on the rearview mirror. He had his eyes downcast and a small pout.

"Dad never comes to see me anymore…" he said quietly. "He likes to work more than he likes me…"

Naruto paused and flexed his hands against the wheel of the vehicle. "You see…" he said after some time. "That's where you're wrong…" He couldn't offer Seichi a tiny reassuring smile, because he was thinking hard about his words. "Sasuke… He loves you so much. That's why he's out there…protecting you from the world around you, you know?" he finished with a faint grin, glancing at Seichi from the mirror again. "If Sasuke wasn't always outside saving the world, how would he know that you're protected?"

Seichi's eyes furrowed in something Naruto couldn't understand. Frustration? "No," Seichi said with a violent shake of his head. "I don't need protection from…from outside…" he looked out the window and gestured vaguely. "Outside can't hurt me. Inside will. _Mom_ will."

Naruto was grateful for the red light ahead because he needed to stop to wrap his head around what Seichi just said. "Your mom? Sakura? Why do you need protection from her?" he asked cautiously, choosing to turn around in the driver's seat to look at the boy.

Seichi only stared at him warily before his eyes settled into that familiar glare. "You don't need to know. Dad's going to save me. Not you_."_

Naruto stared at him, taken aback, before he squinted at the boy. What the hell was he talking about? The loud honk of a horn sounded and he jumped, startled. He turned back around in the driver's seat and saw that the light had already turned green, and probably had been for some time. He shook his head and kept his eyes on the road, grateful that Seichi decided to keep silent for the rest of the ride.

Naruto had managed to find parking a few blocks from his building. He would have to move it to the other side before eight o'clock, though, when the sweepers came.

He wasn't surprised when Seichi gave him a hard time before getting out of the car, and refused to hold Naruto's hand when they crossed the few streets they had to cross. Seichi maintained a haughty look on his face as he walked in front of Naruto (he always moved ahead when Naruto stood next to him) and glared at every person who looked at him with his large book bag bobbing awkwardly on his back.

Naruto frowned at Seichi's back. There was no way he was going to get along with this kid. He didn't know if he'd be violating the promise he made to Sakura, but he had to find someone to take care of Seichi, someone who'd be nice to him, someone who'd take care of him, and be polite to him even if the kid did something completely idiotic.

That ruled out Kiba, his grandparents, and just about everyone else he knew who was nearby. Naruto sighed. It was probably best this way, anyway. Sakura entrusted_him_ with Seichi, so _he_ should be the one to take care of him.

They arrived at Naruto's building in less than five minutes. Naruto had to call Seichi to stop walking, and rolled his eyes when the kid looked at Naruto's building with an appalled look on his face.

"Home sweet home, brat," Naruto commented when they walked inside. He pressed the elevator button incessantly, as if the elevator would arrive faster that way, and watched with no-nonsense eyes as Seichi took in his surroundings. Seichi turned around slowly and stopped when his eyes landed on the small staircase to the side of the blonde. Naruto already knew what the staircase looked like, so he didn't bother checking to see why Seichi had paused, widened his eyes with a small shiver, and took a small step back. He eyed the staircase with a cautiousness that made Naruto snort. The brat was probably glaring at a smudge of dirt on the walls, or shivering at the mismatched tiles.

Surprisingly, the kid didn't say anything when the elevator came, even when he had to step over a bit of urine to enter the elevator. Naruto wrinkled his nose in disgust at that. It was a cheap apartment building, he knew that, but he hadn't seen any reason to complain about filth. Naruto sighed. It seemed that Seichi would only bring him bad luck.

Naruto watched with raised eyebrows as Seichi took in his surroundings with wide, almost terrified eyes as they walked down the hallway to his apartment. Honestly, had the kid never seen a bit of dirt on the floor? A few colors of graffiti on the walls? Blinking lights in need of repair?

When Naruto stopped at his door, Seichi stood far behind him, with a look that warred between apprehensive and disgusted; so far, it seemed, disgust dominated.

Naruto gestured for the boy to come in impatiently, but Seichi stood outside, staring at Naruto with slightly incredulous eyes. "This place," he said softly, "is _ugly_."

Naruto closed his eyes, silently asking for patience, sighed, and looked at Seichi with a sarcastic smile. "Really? In that case it's not much different than _you_," he said nastily. "Besides, you're only staying here for a week. Endure."

Seichi blinked multiple times, still standing outside the door. "Endure…" he said softly. "That was one of our vocabulary words…"

Naruto tried, with great difficulty, not to roll his eyes. "Listen, kid, stop wasting time. Don't you have homework or something?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow when Seichi widened his eyes at that. Then he affected a steady glare and walked into the apartment. Naruto sighed and shut the door. "Just drop your bag anywhere," he grumbled, taking off his shirt and throwing it haphazardly across the room. "I'm going to cook us some noodles, then you can do your homework and go to bed."

"Mom and dad let me watch T.V before I go to bed." Seichi replied with a tight frown.

Naruto made a big deal of smiling very wide. "Oh, then of _course_ you can watch television—" He paused dramatically, looked around, and put on a devastated expression. "Oh, wait, I don't _have_ one." He shook his head and walked into his bedroom to throw his cellphone on the bed. "Make yourself at home, kid!" he yelled out.

Seichi shouted something back at him, but Naruto ignored him and went into the kitchen to cook some grub.

Naruto had already set up the sleeping arrangements. He'd bought an extra mat, a fluffier one, than he'd had before, and put it next to the first. It would be Seichi's "bed." He made sure to add big fluffy pillows and a large comforter, courtesy of Sakura, because she said Seichi couldn't sleep without _some_ sense of familiarity.

Sasuke's son was in the living room doing homework. Naruto caught a glimpse of him working a couple of times, and he had to roll his eyes. The kid looked like he was running a national marathon, what with the way the pencil moved against the paper with such speed. Naruto noticed a few numbers that made his head ache and went back to setting up the bedroom.

Seichi would sleep on the left, while Naruto had the side nearest the door since it was by the outlet where he charged his phone.

Naruto moved a few of his things out of the way and into a little corner, and was wondering what to do with his laundry when Seichi's voice startled him.

"Idiot."

Naruto jumped. Then he sighed. Seichi had wasted no time giving the blonde that nickname soon after he came into the apartment.

"Do you have a calculator?" Seichi asked quietly.

Naruto frowned. "No, sorry."

Seichi frowned tightly at him before turning away—

"Wait." Naruto said fumbling around his pockets. Then he bent down and picked up his charging phone. "My cell phone has one, I think." Before he could hand it over, Seichi had already stepped up, grabbed it, and walked back into the living room.

Naruto frowned and went back to arranging things.

Naruto knew that Seichi had finished his homework half an hour later when he heard the familiar sounds of _Pacman_ blasting from his phone. He smiled in spite of himself and took that chance to finally just lay down on his make-shift bed.

It had been a weird day, but he supposed it could have gone worse. He**'**d expected Seichi to be a confident little boy, spitting insults every chance he got and screaming about how he hated life and everything else – generally being stereotypically emo just like Sasuke used to be. Instead he got this. A small young boy who seemed more confused about the events going on around him than angry. A small boy who Naruto actually felt sorry for shoving him in the back seat like he did. Hmm. Naruto sighed heavily. The kid didn't need discipline, he thought finally. He needed answers.

In his thoughts, he let his eyes wander around, and finally they landed on the two pieces of paper that the policeman had given him a week ago, untouched and shoved up against the near wall next to his laundry. Naruto sighed and narrowed his eyes. He wasn't in the mood to look at anything serious right now.

Naruto turned away from the papers.

…Then he looked back at them again, leaned over, and picked them up.

He unfolded them and read them.

_Gaara Sabaku Kaze_

Naruto shut his eyes. The name made him shiver. He eyed the pictures they had of him with squinted eyes and turned that paper away, instead looking at the data they had on him instead.

He read each line slowly, with cautious eyes, ready to just slap the paper down or rip it up if he couldn't take it.

_Born: January 19, 1986._

_Hmm_. Naruto thought idly. That made Gaara only three years older than him…That made him… Naruto counted in head… Twenty six years old.

_Hometown: Mushroom City, Suna_

_Blood Relatives:  
Father: Sabaku Kaze. (Deceased)  
Mother: Karura Kaze. (Deceased)  
Uncle: Yashamaru Ito.  
Sister: Temari Kaze.  
Brother: Kankuro Kaze_.

Naruto frowned at the list. He remembered the policemen saying that the uncle was burned alive. Why wasn't "deceased" next to his name? The only reason Naruto could think of was that the list wasn't updated, or there was a mistake.

He went back to the paper inquiringly.

_Married: Never_

Naruto laughed. He would _hope_ not.

_History of Mental Illness: Treated by Doctor Kabuto Yakushi at the Institute for the Mentally Damaged, MD Asylum, from 1992-1998._

_Doctors Note:_

Naruto's eyes squinted at the terrible script that was the doctor's handwriting.

_Patient # 17. Gaara Sabaku Kaze:_

_Treated for—Hallucinations: Claims of monster coming into his room at night. Statement proven _false_. Ans. Insanity._

_Treated for—Violent Tempers: Causes: _Unreasonable_. Ans. INSANITY._

_Treated for—General _lack_ of emotion: Cannot identify with simple emotions: Causes: _unknown_. Ans. unknown._

Naruto blinked. It hurt to look at these words. They were all scribbled in such a sharp script, and none of it made any sense. He skipped over many of it, catching words like, _unstable family life_, _possible guilt_, _undecipherable phobia_, and _emotionless_. He skimmed until he saw what looked like a normal paragraph. It was written in a more legible script that Naruto could stand to read. It looked like a piece torn up from a lined notebook, and copied haphazardly into the middle of the page.

_[1997, December_

_Gaara has been one of my most [difficult] interesting [subjects] patients. For the first time in my life [career], I feel as if I have accomplished nothing. This boy is completely and __irreversibly__ insane. His mind plays like a __counter-__clockwise clock; logic is not _logical_ in his mind. The illogical process of information plays into his brain and he acts upon the strange directions of his mind [and that leads to his questionable actions]. His violent tantrums are over-exaggerated by his caretakers. He simply possesses an alien strength that seems to come out when he is particularly displeased. Gaara's anger is a near irrational occurrence; however, his actions to ease this rare sentiment are to simply convulse into himself, and harden. Rarely does he lash out physically; however, when he does, it is never __human to human__ contact. He seems to prefer to throw objects. I do not doubt for one second that his home life plays a key part to his behavior; however his care takers have refused to sit down and speak with me._

_Despite his arguable insanity he is, undeniably, a genius. More so than I, I daresay, as I have never come to face a human being with the ability to manipulate, warp, and twist the neighboring, unsuspecting mind into bending awkwardly to comply to his every need and desire. This boy does not have the ability to harm without will, to destroy without confirmation, to murder without consent…but he has the ability to coax, to ease, to cajole, to massage your very essence to death. He will not kill you._You_ will kill _yourself_ if you stay too long in his presence._

_His intentions are unclear. His mind is too impossible to define. His genius is our society's insanity, I must say with remorse and thankfulness, as I feel that a boy with such strange abilities is not ready to benefit a society. At the same time, a harnessed and controlled version of this boy's ability explodes between my eyes and gives me sight into a world where this boy would be the reason for monumental advances in this pitiful excuse for a world. Until Patient #17's reasons for being can come into light, it would be best if he continues to work with me as I fear he might do something dangerous if his mind isn't contained.]_

_Evidence for Court Case: Gaara Sabaku Kaze vs. Kaze, 1998, April._

Naruto was only half surprised to see his hands shaking with the paper. His eyes were wide, and a dot of sweat was forming at his eyebrow. He'd read the paragraph so quickly that the contents were swirling in his mind. _Counter clockwise, illogical, genius, dangerous_—this man was insane. Naruto breathed a few more harsh breaths. How could Sasuke be looking for this man? What could he possibly gain from someone who—

Naruto's eyes scrolled to the bottom of the page where it read all of Gaara's crimes. Murder _this_, murder _that_, murder, murder, _murder_, this man was a freaking monster—

_November, 1998._

_Stabbed his father twenty seven times in the chest with generation three army knife. Father unlikely to live._

_Set fire to uncle using whole-wheat cooking oil. Uncle unlikely to live._

_December 23, 2004_

_Murdered twelve teachers by means of strange gas. Gas: unknown. Suspected to be handmade. Gas Effects: Seemed to cause nerves in brain to pop when inhaled. Teachers found with bodies unharmed, but ears bleeding. No survivors._

_Murdered sixty-three students by means of strange gas. Gas: unknown. Suspected to be handmade. Gas Effects: Seemed to have had burned skin with contact. Students found with skin melting off their bones, and innards falling out of their_—

"What's that?"

Naruto was startled badly. Badly enough to shout out and throw the paper in the air in fear. Instead of finding the murderer himself at his door, he saw Seichi. Naruto blinked at him. "I…uh… It was…" he swallowed and shook his head. "It was nothing."

Seichi raised an eyebrow. "Is it porn?"

Naruto choked on nothing and looked at Seichi with eyes wide enough to pop out of its sockets. "Wh-what? No! _No_! How could you even—I'm not even—_what_?" Naruto's rant of incredulousness was stopped when the paper he threw in the air floated right into his lap. He grumbled and folded the paper in half.

Seichi frowned. "Let me see."

Naruto glared at the boy and shook his head. "Hell no, kid. It isn't for you."

Seichi grimaced. "You were looking at naked girls."

Naruto frowned. "Believe that if you want to…" He put the paper underneath his pillow and eyed Seichi warningly, daring him to take it from there.

Instead the small boy walked to the left of Naruto, near where all his dirty clothes piled up. He began to raise an eyebrow, but reacted too late when Seichi bent down to pick up the photograph of Gaara he'd thrown aside several minutes ago.

He was ready to shout and snatch it away when he saw the expression on Seichi's face. It had the same look as it did before he'd entered his apartment. It was cautious distaste, but fear was no longer the borderline emotional. Fear was the emotion spread through his face like a tidal wave, and his eyes widened. He didn't shake, as Naruto did when he was reading the material he had in his hands. Instead his eyes narrowed, and widened, then narrowed again, as if he was trying to agree on something with himself.

Naruto reached out to him. "Seichi…are you all right?"

Seichi's eyes lingered on the paper before he gave it to Naruto. He also took Naruto's phone out of his pocket and handed it to Naruto. Then he walked to his side of the room, and began to undress for bed.

Naruto raised an eyebrow in concern. "Seichi," he said lightly. "What's wrong?"

No answer. Naruto frowned. "Seichi," Naruto said more firmly. "Is everything—"

He stopped when Seichi pointed to the picture in his hands. "Him," Seichi said finally. He paused dramatically and stared into Naruto's eyes with a look that the blonde could not comprehend. "Him," Seichi said again. Then he turned away and sat on the bed. "I saw him."

Naruto's heart promptly _stopped_ working.

What?

_What_?

"Wh...what?"

Seichi pointed to the picture again. "I saw him," he whispered quietly.

Naruto tried to open his mouth to speak, but choked sounds came out. "Wh-_ere_—" Naruto coughed. "_Where_ did you see him?" he asked cautiously. "On T.V? On a poster? Did your dad—"

"Here."

Naruto's stomach tumbled somewhere between his intestines.

"I saw him here." Seichi said softly. It was almost like he was soothing the blonde. Naruto didn't know why he was speaking the way he was, as if someone would hear him if he spoke to loudly.

"You…" Naruto made an odd gesture with his hands, shut his eyes tightly, and took a deep breath. "You saw him…_here_?"

Seichi nodded. "Here. In the building. While we were walking in."

Naruto's eyes only gradually widened in size.

"He was standing…" Seichi's eyes dimmed then, "on the staircase."

…

…

Naruto didn't trust himself to speak. He vaguely remembered Seichi pausing at something at the staircase, but how could it have been—?

No.

_No._

Naruto shook his head and smiled a small cautious smile. He looked at Seichi, who was eyeing him with calm and dull eyes. "Seichi," he began slowly, "You were probably just…imagining things," he said quickly. "This person," he gestured towards the picture, "there's no way he's here. It's impossible that he's even in this country—"

"It was him," Seichi said softly, but still managing to interrupt the blonde. "I know. I _saw_."

Naruto clutched the paper in his hands until it crumpled. "But that's _impossible_—"

"It _was_ him," Seichi insisted quietly. "I know. I _saw_." He paused, looking down at his sheets. "He had…those _eyes_."

Naruto stared back at the boy helplessly. "Wha…that's… It's _impossible_." Naruto let his head fall into his hands. "Please, Seichi, tell me you're lying to me. Please tell me you're not sure…"

Seichi looked up at Naruto in wonder and slight fear. Naruto inwardly cursed. Damn it, Seichi didn't know that this man was dangerous. He probably thought it was just some weird guy on the staircase, and now Naruto was making him scared.

Naruto offered him a smile. "Listen, Seichi," he said carefully. "Describe him to me."

Seichi looked at Naruto for a moment longer before he blinked. "He looked like…" he started. Then he sighed. "He looked like that picture," he said simply. Naruto was about to growl that he needed _more_ than that but stopped himself when Seichi continued. "He was…tall." He looked at his hands. "He was really pale…and his face was…" Seichi's eyes narrowed, at a loss for words. "It was…very…cold." He clenched his hands into fists then. "He looked like dad, when he got shot…and they took him to the hospital…like he wasn't alive…"

Naruto's eyes closed at the memory.

"And he…" Seichi adopted a puzzled look. "It was like he…wasn't _there_… He…he _shimmered_." Seichi did a weird shaking movement with his hands. "He was…_blurry_." Seichi blinked and looked ahead of him.

Naruto remembered the staircase entryway being particularly dark. Surly that would explain the blurriness—

"But…" Seichi added after long moments of silence, "Something was different…than the pictures…"

Naruto felt his heart soar at that statement. Thank the _gods._ Maybe Seichi was just imagining things, as he'd hoped. Maybe there had been a man there, but it was someone who was simply creepy looking—possibly a bum on the verge of death, possibly had been wandering around helplessly around the building for something to savage—

"He had…a tattoo…on his…" Seichi paused and pointed a finger to his forehead.

Yes, yes, _yes,_ Naruto thought. Gaara didn't have a tattoo. The man Seichi saw wasn't Gaara at all. He was some random person, trying to find—

"His hair," Seichi said suddenly, still staring ahead of him in puzzlement. Naruto wondered idly what was so interesting about his walls. "It wasn't…it wasn't—_brown_—like that." He pointed to the pictures then, and his fingers stayed pointing for a few more moments before he looked up at Naruto with a face hollow enough to frighten the blonde. "It was red."

Naruto didn't know why, but his heart picked up its incessant beating by a mile. Red? His hair was..._red_? Naruto blinked and for some reason his eyes travelled unconsciously... towards the large window…

There was no one there when he looked. So, then, why was Naruto's chest pounding like it was?

And then-

_Flash_.

There it was.

_Movement_.

Mr. Pie was standing by his window, shifting, moving quickly in almost fevered movements, arms moving up and down, up and down, up and down, _up and down_-

_WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING_!-

_SPLAT_.

_Smear_.

Black.

All over the windows.

Naruto twitched.

Or was that red?

...

...

The movement stopped. And Mr. Pie stood there. Shifting. Shimmering? Naruto blinked back at the figure so long, eyeing the new smear that decorated his windows.

More oil?

_Nah_.

Naruto swallowed. With difficulty.

"Seichi..." he said slowly, still eyeing the window across from him with eyes wide enough to pop out of their sockets. "Promise me something."

Seichi glanced up with a puzzled look. A look that Naruto was glad for, because it meant that the kid had no idea how much _shit _they were all in.

Naruto turned to face him with hard eyes, and grabbed the sides of his head slowly, coaxing him to look right into his eyes. "Whatever you do..." he whispered, as if someone would hear them if he spoke any louder. "Don't you _ever _look out this window."

Seichi blinked. "Why?" he whispered back.

Naruto blinked back.

_Why_?

It was because _doom, doom, doom_ was singing in his heart.

* * *

**End of Chapter**

[_Beta'd by_ AkizukiSakura]

**Author Notes:**

**Word Count**: 7,000

An update finally. I'm really sorry this took so long guys, but school has been a bitch to me, and the only way I could get revenge was by whooping school's ass right back.

So. There you have it. I'm not so happy with the cliffhanger, but I suppose I'll just have to do better next time. So. I've given you guys more information about Gaara, and I only have two questions you might like to think about.

1. Why did Gaara's Uncle not have the "Deceased" parenthesis next to his name?

2. Does Naruto really know who's living in the fifth floor apartment across from him?

Until next time.


	6. When Everything You Know is a Lie

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Six: _When_ _Everything You Know is a Lie_

* * *

Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep go to sleep, gotosleepgotosleepgotosleep_GO TO SLEEP_!

…

…...

Naruto couldn't go to sleep.

He lay on his "bed", staring up blankly at the peeling ceiling of his apartment. He honestly didn't know what the hell to do with himself. He felt like a wet noodle lying helplessly in a bowl awaiting a mouth of doom. He was helpless in his bed while a freaking murderer was probably planning how to kill him right across the freaking street.

Wait, Naruto.

_Wait_.

You have no evidence. You have no special clues. The man across the street was no one. No one. Just a pie thrower. He wasn't_Gaara_—_psh_—there's no _way_ that the redhead could be _the_ Gaara. Of course not.

You were….imagining things.

Yes. That was exactly it. He had to be imagining things, because as soon as he put Seichi to bed, the black stains on the window were gone, clear, _vanished_. Like they hadn't been there in the first place.

It had to be in his head. All of it.

Besides.

What kind of proof did he have? Seichi was the one who told him it was Gaara. So what? Seichi was a kid.

Kids were stupid.

Instinctively, Naruto turned his head to face the child, now sleeping soundlessly on his side of the room. After Naruto had told him a number of times not to question him on why he couldn't look out the window, the kid had given up, given him an absurd request to tell him a bedtime story, (which Naruto shamefully gave in to), and finally went to bed.

_That bastard_, Naruto thought, sleeping soundly while the blonde had to toss and turn in his own mat. Damn it, why did this have to happen to him? Why did this have to happen when he was finally starting to make something of himself on his own?

He'd contemplated for a good half hour, the idea that his grandmother was doing this to him, that his grandmother was plotting this whole scam to get him to come back to the mansion; she'd never been thrilled with the fact that Naruto wanted to leave.

Alas, that was impossible, because even his grandmother didn't have the time or the _patience_, for that matter, to plan up a scheme as elaborate as this.

Naruto sighed and turned back to stare at the ceiling. What was he doing? What was he _doing_? He was being…an idiot. A paranoid idiot.

For one thing, _the_ Gaara couldn't be living across the street from Naruto. It was just impossible. Secondly, if it did turn out that it was_the_Gaara living across from him, then all he would have to do was waltz into the police station, tell the policemen he got their guy, and everyone would be happy.

Except Sasuke of course, who would most likely be angry that Naruto got to his prey before he did.

Naruto let the thought of beating Sasuke at something content him for a moment, but only for a moment, as it dawned on him that he'd rather have Gaara somewhere in freaking Antarctica than across the street from him. He honestly didn't care if that had Sasuke looking for years, and he didn't care if that meant a lost opportunity to beat Sasuke at something either, because, frankly, he valued his life over his pride.

Naruto swiped a (shaking) hand through his hair.

He would ask the landlord, he decided. It was the only logical resolve, really. All he needed was for the landlord to tell him the name of the guy living in the fifth floor apartment across from him. When he got the name, he would know for sure.

Ah, but wait. What if he gave out a false name? What if the guy across the street was Gaara under some kind of wicked alias?

Naruto shut his eyes in despair. He would ask anyway. Besides, you could tell a lot by a name, even a fake one. Maybe it would have an "I'm innocent" ring to it, or maybe it would have an "I'm a freaking murderer" vibe. Hell, maybe it would rhyme with Gaara Sabako Kaze.

…

Nah. That Kabuto doctor said that Gaara was a genius. He wouldn't make a mistake like that…But that was assuming that it _was_ _The_ Gaara, in fact, living on the apartment across from him…which he probably wasn't…right?

And wait. How could Naruto be sure that Seichi meant _this_ particular redhead? Even if it was _a_ redhead that Seichi saw and even if it was_the_Gaara, that didn't mean it was the redhead living across the street from him. Yeah, that was exactly it. If it _was_ Gaara that Seichi saw, the guy was probably on a plane to Zimbabwe for all he knew.

But then…that left the question as to why Gaara was in the staircase of his apartment building in the first place…

Naruto let out another sigh of despair. Gods, he hated this. He hated questioning himself like this. There were so many possibilities and there was a ninety five percent chance that all of them were all wrong and all for nothing. Naruto was just being pathetic, allowing himself to be paranoid like this.

Whatever. Naruto groaned as he stretched. He flipped his phone beside him to check the time. 2:51 in the morning. He'd wasted five hours in useless contemplation and in fear. And for what? Was he afraid that Gaara would come into his apartment in the middle of the night and stab him in his sleep? What were the chances of that happening?

Naruto allowed himself to close his eyes. He had to stop being so pathetic. He would go up to the 23rd floor tomorrow—or rather later today, and ask Iruka some questions. He'd bring the picture with him too.

With that resolve in his head, he allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

Naruto woke up with a start. He'd heard the sound of plates clanking together. When he opened his eyes, he was met with the pitch black darkness of his room. He reached for his phone but when he flipped it, he was met with more darkness. Damn it, he thought. He must have forgotten to charge it.

Then there it was again. That distant clank-clanking of dishware in the distance. Naruto froze. "Seichi?" he called into the darkness. No answer. He couldn't even hear the kid's steady snoring anymore. "Seichi?" Naruto tried again, louder this time, because it was possible that the kid wasn't even in the room.

Again, he was met with no answer.

Naruto sat up from his bed and cursed. "Damn it, Seichi, what the hell are you doing out of bed?" he stood up then, cautiously because it was so dark.

To be careful, he felt for Seichi's mound of flesh next to him with his foot. He was also checking if the sheets were warm and wet. He couldn't rule out that the kid peed on it and went to think of a way out the situation in the kitchen.

But when Naruto poked a toe at the mat beside him, he felt the familiar body mass breathing steadily beside him. Naruto paused.

_Cl-ank Clank_

…

….

Oh.

Shit.

Naruto swallowed.

_Cl-ank—chchh—clank—ping!_

Someone was in his kitchen!

Naruto's heart rate increased tenfold, and his already shaking hand was spasming by his side. All logical thought escaped him and the only words that could form in his mind was, oh shit, oh shit, o shi—

_Clank—creeee-ek—_

Someone was opening his cabinets! Someone was freaking _opening_ his cabinets!

It took Naruto several moments to realize that he'd been breathing harshly out of his mouth. Whoever was in the kitchen would know of his position and—

Naruto put a hand to his mouth to muffle his ragged breath, but the sounds only ended up coming out as awkward gasps instead.

_Cl-clank._

Shut up, Naruto.

Silence…then—

_Clank- cl-ank—ping!—_

Naruto had to actually catch himself before he peed in his pants. "He-hello?" he called out.

No answer.

_Well what the hell did you expect?_ Naruto thought to himself harshly. That whoever it was would _reveal_ himself? With a quiet huff of breath, he slowly stood up from his bed. "I-I know you're there….so…get out before I—"

_Crcchhh…Shhhhh_

Naruto paused.

The faucet was on.

By now, Naruto's heart was pounding in his ears. He'd fully stood up from the mat, and was inching towards his door, feeling for the light switch on the wall.

"U-uh…" he thought of something intimidating to say to the intruder. "I-I'm warning you…" He failed miserably.

He heard a hiss.

Who the hell _was_ that?

Naruto pondered to himself frantically. Whoever the hell it was must've gotten into the apartment through the window or something, because Naruto would've heard the nasty croak of his front door if the intruder came through there. And plus, whoever was rummaging in his kitchen had absolutely no qualms about being caught because he was making so much noise, and still hadn't answered any of Naruto's calls.

That could only mean one thing, Naruto thought with widened (or at least more widened then they already were) eyes: The person in his kitchen was Gaara Sabako.

Naruto didn't know why, but when that thought crossed his mind, he believed it so strongly that he nearly collapsed onto his mat again.

Oh my God—

_Cla-ank—ping! Shhhh…._

Naruto paused.

_Hisssss_….

He knew it, he freaking knew it. It _was_ Gaara living across the street from him, and now, with his freakin' _magical_ powers he teleported himself into Naruto's apartment without making a sound, and was now rummaging through Naruto's cabinets to find a knife to kill him with.

"I-I-I've figured you out…" Naruto whispered. Then he spoke a little louder. "I won't let you hurt me…I-I-I know Tai Kwon Do!" Or at least his grandmother did.

_Chhrr—_

Naruto held in a breath. He was stepping out into the kitchen now, feeling the walls for the lights. He planned on turning on the light, surprising the redhead, then screaming bloody murder so someone from the outside could call the police. Hopefully they would get there before Naruto was cut into tiny little pieces.

Then a thought occurred in his head. This would've been a much more fool proof plan if he hadn't called into the darkness like an idiot. Naruto sighed inwardly—

_Rustle, rustle—_

_Shit_, that sounded close, Naruto panicked inside his head for a moment before he stumbled. Damn it, maybe he should just head for the door and bolt the hell out of there. It would be a piece of cake. Gaara wouldn't know where the door was since he'd teleported himself magically into the blonde's apartment, and Naruto would be able to dash out into safety.

But wait. What about Seichi? Naruto almost let out an audible growl. Damn it, now he _had_ to go on with his idiot plan. It was either that or he'd have a child's blood on his hands. He didn't suppose Gaara held back on little kids…?

There was another rustle and Naruto jumped. Damn it, he thought. He would just get this over with and everything would be alright. A tanned and trembling finger finally found the switch on the wall. Naruto breathed in slowly. He would turn it on in three…two…one-!

Naruto flipped the switch and screamed his loudest battle cry—

…and saw no one…

…save for the skittering mice that were now tumbling tragically into the sink from their place in the file cabinets.

Naruto sighed with gusto and leaned back against the wall, falling onto the floor against it. He would have been angry if he wasn't so relieved. And man…what was he thinking? Gaara? _The_ Gaara? Teleportation? _Magic_?

He was losing it.

It was then that he heard a small rustle from inside his bedroom.

"Mmm…Wh—dad?" it was Seichi's weak, tired, but hopeful mumble.

It almost broke the blonde's hear to reply, "A-ah…No, i-it's just me…Naruto. Trying to catch a few, uh…mice."

There was silence for several moments…until—

"Idiot."

Naruto smiled lazily. He couldn't agree more.

* * *

"Why are we doing this again?"

Naruto spit the toothpaste out of his mouth and looked down to glare at the raven haired boy. "For the last time, we're going upstairs to find out some important information."

"Why do I have to come?" said Seichi with his voice a little muffled with the brush in his mouth. "You're only going upstairs."

Naruto sighed and made an exasperated face in the mirror. "What part of I can't leave you alone in the apartment don't you understand?"

"Why?" the child asked spitting into the sink as well. "My mom leaves me home alone all the time."

Naruto rolled his eyes and put his hand into the water so he could wash his mouth. "Well you and your mother live in pansy little flower town. I live in hardcore weed town. You won't be safe by yourself."

The little boy paused in his brushing for a moment to look up at the blonde.

Naruto closed his eyes and waited for the boy to start talking about how privileged he was and how unlucky Naruto was to be living in such a place.

"This town is called _Weed_?"

Naruto blinked. Then he laughed. "No, kid, it's called—oh forget it, just brush your teeth so we can get the hell upstairs."

"I haven't finished my second cycle yet." Seichi said frowning, voice once again muffled by his toothbrush.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Cycle?"

Seichi nodded his head. "Left side, right side, front side, tongue, spit. You have to do it three times."

Naruto only stared at the boy.

Seichi took it as a cue to continue. "And why do you leave the water on?" he asked lowly. "I don't think you can afford to pay for your water." He blinked up at the blonde. "Mom always makes me put the water in a cup, and it's all the water I'll use in one brushing session."

Naruto blinked very slowly down at the child. Finally he said, "I suppose you brush your teeth three times a day too."

Seichi shook his head. "Only on the weekends when I'm always home. You have to brush your teeth after every meal, but I can't do that in school."

"Hmm…" Naruto nodded his head lamely before rolling his eyes. "You and your mother, " he said referring to Seichi's previous statement. "live in a house. You pay bills that cover everything you use. I live in an apartment. I pay rent for living here. I don't pay for water. I can turn it on all day and not have to pay a dime, and I can keep the lights on at night time too, if I want."

Seichi widened his eyes for a slight moment before he spit tooth paste out of his mouth. He was about to put the toothbrush back in his mouth again when Naruto took it away. "That's enough." The blonde said tiredly. "Wash your mouth so we can go. You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth when we come back."

Sasuke's son glared up at him. "Whatever, yellow mouth."

Naruto adopted an offended look. "My mouth isn't _yellow_." He looked in the mirror and grinned humorously to check. Hmm…maybe his teeth weren't as _white_ as they could be…but they certainly weren't _yellow_.

Seichi turned off the faucet then, and went out of the small bathroom. Naruto followed begrudgingly and led them into the front so they could exit the apartment. "We won't need out coats since we're going upstairs—"

"No, shit."

"_Kid_," Naruto growled in warning. Then he stopped and gave up with a sigh. He opened the door to his apartment and stepped aside so the raven haired boy could walk ahead of him. When he closed the door behind him, he saw Seichi already walking near the elevator. "Hey, kid—_wait_ for me."

"I can take care of myself." He called over his shoulder.

Naruto growled and walked faster to meet the kid. "Listen, kid." He said when they stood in front of the elevator. "Just stay with me, alright? Is that too much to ask?"

Seichi looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "What are you afraid of?"

Naruto blinked. "Wh-what? Afraid? What? Nothing. _Nothing_. I-I'm not—"

The elevator door opened, conveniently coming faster than it ever had to the fifth floor. Both Seichi and Naruto stepped in. The blonde pressed the number twenty three and turned back to the boy. "Look. It's not that I'm scared." He said, ignoring Seichi's raise of an eyebrow. "It's just that Sakura trusted me with you, and if anything happens to you—"

"Mom doesn't care what happens to me."

"Of course your mum cares!" Naruto half yelled exasperatedly. "Look, we're not having this conversation. Just stay with me at all times alright? And if it makes you feel better, Sasuke, your _father_, in a way, trusted me with you too."

Seichi was about to retort but he closed his mouth and looked thoughtful.

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. Seichi didn't speak to him the entire time in the elevator, but when they'd arrived on the twenty third floor he wanted to make something clear. "Listen to me, Seichi." He said as they stepped out. "You've been pretty much a jerk the entire time you've been with me, and I'm fine with that, but right now we're walking to the landlord's apartment—alright? I want you to show respect, and I want you to be as polite as you possibly can. Hold in your grudging pessimism for being under my care for just a few minutes, will you? Iruka's a nice guy."

Seichi looked up at him with an almost unreadable expression. "Grudging…pessimism?" he said slowly. "What does that mean?"

Naruto sighed. The kid looked generally interested. "Just don't be rude, okay?" he said with a small edge of finality before putting a hand on the boy's back to push him ahead.

Iruka told him to see him at apartment 23G if ever there were any problems. Naruto followed the letters of the floor until he finally stood in front of the door. He found himself a bit surprised. Since Iruka was the landlord, he figured he would have somewhat of a better apartment. The fact that the man lived on a floor that looked just as dreadful as Naruto's made the blonde raise an eyebrow, and staring at the landlord's door, Naruto could see the familiar warn scratches, the faded Graffiti, and the shallow scratches...

Naruto knocked.

Seichi shifted uncomfortably. "I'm hungry."

Naruto glared down at him. "What did you expect when you rejected the noodles?"

"We had noodles yesterday. I hated it."

Naruto chocked on something in his throat. Seichi's proclamation didn't sound any less shocking a second time. He was about to lecture of the sheer _greatness_ of Ramen when he heard a sound from the inside of the apartment. It sounded like a shout and a small bang, but it ended abruptly. And then…silence.

Naruto blinked. "Hello?" Then he knocked again.

There was a shuffling, another shout, and then more shuffling.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the door. He looked down at Sasuke's son and they shared a raised eyebrow. "Maybe we should—"

Naruto was cut short when the familiar clanking of locks sounded from the door, and it opened revealing a flustered and red faced Iruka.

Naruto blinked. Iruka blinked back. "N-Naruto?" There was a small pause. Then Iruka burst into a grin. "Naruto! It _is_ you!" he stepped aside and gestured energetically for the blonde to come inside. It was then that the landlord's eyes fell on the boy beside the blonde. Naruto opened his mouth to explain but, to his surprise, Iruka bend down to Seichi's level and beamed at him too. "Hello there!" he said. "What's your name?"

Seichi blinked back at the man before raising and eyebrow and looking up at Naruto. Naruto nudged him. Sasuke's son narrowed his eyes a bit. "Seichi…" he said quietly.

If possible, Iruka's smile grew wider. "Seichi…" he said in wonder before he stood up and patted away imaginary dust off his _apron_ clad legs. "Please!" Iruka then said, opening the door even wider. "Come in!"

Naruto smiled at the man lightly before he shuffled Seichi ahead of him and entered the apartment. Naruto's eyes widened a bit when they did step inside. Now he knew the privileges of being landlord, he thought to himself. The inside of the apartment was nowhere near as small as his own apartment was, and everything was almost unbearably _clean_.

"Come and sit." Iruka said happily as he shuffled them into the living room. Naruto raised a blonde eyebrow at the bright plastic covering the chairs, save for the single leather chair that was in between the couch and the love seat. Naruto pulled himself and Seichi to sit on the couch, while Iruka stood facing them. "Would you like some tea—or maybe hot chocolate?" he said smiling at Seichi.

"Ah, no tha—"

"I would."

Naruto glared at Seichi, but turned to smile sheepishly at Iruka. "I guess he'll have the hot chocolate then…" he said lightly.

Iruka clapped his hands. "Are you sure you don't want anything, Naruto? I still have some left over pie…"

Naruto blinked and felt a low tumbling in his stomach. He didn't think he'd be able to even _look_ at a pie the same way anymore—

"Unfortunately, it's apple, not strawberry. I'm not sure if you have a strawberry preference…"

Naruto thought about that for a moment. He blinked. Was he really going to let _one_ freak strawberry pie accident kill his intense love for pie? He thought not.

"I'll have a piece of that, then." Naruto said quickly. Besides. It was apple—a nice safe and _brown_ color. Nowhere near red.

Iruka sent another blinding smile at him before he disappeared inside an indentation on the wall that Naruto guessed to be the kitchen. He stared idly ahead of him for a few confused moments before he turned to look at Seichi. The boy sat awkwardly on the plastic chair, not leaning all the way but sitting up straight as his legs dangled helplessly at the edge. Naruto nudged him. "You okay?"

Seichi blinked up at him a shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

Naruto gave him an understanding smile. He didn't really know either. He'd been really uptight and tense all of last night and this morning, but his landlord's cheerfulness just… threw him _off_. How could he be thinking about murderers and crime when in the presence of someone so…happy? Naruto shook his head.

A few more minutes passed without neither he nor Sasuke's son saying anything. It was Iruka's voice in the kitchen that startled them both. "Are you sure you don't want any tea or hot chocolate, Naruto?" he called. "I think you're bound to be thirsty after having…" Naruto and Seichi watched as Iruka came out of the kitchen with a small tray. "…this." Iruka set the tray on the coffee table in front of his guests and smiled.

Naruto smiled sheepishly back at him. "Uhm, thank you….uh," he took the small plate of pie from the tray and handed Seichi the hot chocolate. The raven haired boy took the cup gently and began sipping immediately.

"So!" Iruka said wiping his hands together and sitting back in the loveseat that was directly in front of the couch. "What is it that you wanted to talk abou—"

"Well, well, well." said a voice from the corner of the room. "We have guests."

It took Naruto all his will power and control not to spit out all the contents of pie in his mouth at the site of the half naked man standing in the corner of the room. But it still didn't stop him from chocking a bit in shock.

Holy shit. He'd _completely_ forgotten that Iruka said he lived with his partner. Hell, he'd completely forgotten that Iruka was _gay_. In a moment of panic, his eyes darted to Seichi. The raven haired boy seemed to have frozen in mid sip, looking at the man in the corner with a confused and narrowed look in his eyes.

"Kakashi!" Iruka startled Naruto out of his panicked trance with his exasperated shout. "What on ear—can you _please_ put a shirt on?" he pleaded.

Naruto's eyes twitched a bit when the man gave Iruka a full on smirk. "We're all men here, Iru-chan. It's nothing they haven't seen before."

Naruto twitched. Chan? The hell was that?

Iruka shook his head and turned to look at Naruto with a worried smile. "This is…uh…my partner." He said quietly. "The lazy idiot I told you about." He's turn to the grey haired man to say that.

Naruto tried to smile, he really did, but how _could_ he when that bare, and muscled chest was poking his eyes out? Iruka didn't look that old, but the lazy dude, Kakashi, looked like he couldn't be older than….twenty five. He had a shallow scar running down his left eye, and little nips and marks on his shoulders and abdomen that Naruto didn't really want to think about.

But that didn't mean his mind would listen to him. Like an unwanted plague, images of Iruka and the grey haired man popped up in his head, and it was so strange, it was all so very _weird_. Iruka, this delicate looking man with a permanent blush, together with this young looking biker dude who looked like he had more street smarts than book smarts.

Naruto shivered. Then he shook his head. "Uh, hello." He said lamely. He turned to Seichi. "Say hello, Seichi."

The boy blinked. "I—"

"Hey…" started the grey haired man slowly. "Aren't you…Sasuke's son?"

Naruto's eyes widened. He'd forgotten the small bit about this man being a police officer once.

"Yes." Seichi replied, and Naruto couldn't roll his eyes at the pride in the boy's voice. "Are you a police officer?"

The man smiled. "Not anymore." He said walking towards the living room.

Seichi's eyes narrowed. It looked strange since he was still tipping the cup of hot chocolate towards his lips. "Why? Were you fired?"

Naruto almost reached over and smacked the boy.

"No." Kakashi replied easily. "I was…bored."

Seichi's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something else but Iruka interrupted.

"Kakashi. Please. We have guests. Put a shirt on."

Naruto watched as another slow smile appeared on Kakashi's face. The man walked further into the corner, and the blonde saw him open a door—probably a closet. It must've of been a walk-in one because Kakashi disappeared in it for a few seconds and came back wearing a white wife beater. Naruto caught Iruka rolling his eyes.

"So," the grey haired man said walking into the living room and standing next to the love seat Iruka sat in. "What are you doing with Sasuke's son…?"

"Naruto." Naruto said helpfully.

Kakashi smiled. "Oh, the grandmother's boy."

Naruto allowed his face to scowl. Tsunade just got _around_ didn't she? He rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

The gray haired man nodded his head knowingly. "And Seichi is with you because…?"

Naruto inhaled deeply. "I'm just giving his mum a break for the time being." He said lowly. He didn't want to reveal any of the details of Sakura's breakdown.

Iruka nodded his head. "Children can be a handful, can't they?" he said fondly.

Naruto smiled back at him. "Yeah. But I can handle him." He ruffled Seichi's hair for good measure. He didn't have to look down to see the boy's glare directed at him.

The two men in front of them chuckled lightly.

"Ah…so, Naruto," started Iruka lightly. "What is it that you wanted to talk about? I hope you aren't having any trouble with your apartment…?"

Naruto attempted a small laugh. "Ah…haha, no, n-not really." He put a hand behind his hand sheepishly. "It's just…I want to ask a question…" he looked up at Iruka and folded his hands on his lap seriously. "Remember when you took me to that guy's apartment some time ago? The one right across from mine—to deliver the pie…?"

Iruka smiled cautiously. "Yes…? What of it?" he asked slowly.

Naruto attempted another weak smile. "I was just…wondering if you could tell me…the person's name."

Iruka blinked. "Excuse me?"

Naruto cleared his throat. "I was wondering if you could tell me the name of the person who lives in the apartment right across from mine."

Naruto saw Kakashi's eyes narrow at him, and he saw Iruka's squint in confusion. "Well—" Iruka started slowly. "What is your reason for knowing one of my tenant's names? Is something a matter?"

"No, no, no." Naruto started quickly. "It's just that…I think…I mean…uh…I've seen him a few times from my window and I…I think that…"

Damn it, what now? Should he tell the two men his suspicions? Would it be for the best, considering that Kakashi was once a police officer himself? But then Naruto remembered, he was working on suspicions alone. If anything, if he told anyone, he'd be ruining an innocent person's life. He didn't want that.

"It's just…" he continued. "I've seen him a few times from my window, and I think he's a friend of mine from…middle school."

Naruto watched as Iruka's eyes slowly widened into one of understanding. "Oh." He smiled. "Well then. I suppose it wouldn't hurt. But you know, Naruto, it isn't exactly _legal_ for me to give out someone's information—"

"Just his name!" Naruto exclaimed a little too quickly. He laughed out nervously before he continued quickly. "I just…I just want his name…I know I probably wouldn't like it if you gave my name around, but I'm pretty sure this guy is my friend so I'll doubt he'll be mad if you…uh…gave me his name." Naruto sighed when he finished, and tried to smile.

Iruka looked at him for some time before he smiled back. "Well…alright, then." He said quietly. He stood up then. "I'll have to get the tenant files from the back, though. Ah, Kakashi, keep them company while I find it—and please, don't embarrass me."

Kakashi smiled up at him. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Iruka glared down at him and disappeared out of the living room to walk down a hallway.

Naruto watched him leave for a moment before he looked back at Kakashi. The man was looking at him with those narrowed, distrusting eyes again. Naruto looked away quickly and cleared his throat. He began picking at his pie.

"So…this friend of yours…" Kakashi started slowly. "What's his name?"

Naruto's eyes widened dramatically before he choked on the pie he's just put in his mouth. He took some time to swallow before he looked up Kakashi nervously. "Uh…well…you see…" he stumbled pathetically before shaking his hand sheepishly. "H-his name is…uh…his name is—"

"Kakashi!", came shout from a room neither of them could see. It was Iruka. "Where did you put all files for your building?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto with narrowed eyes for a moment longer before he straightened and called out to his partner. "There in the same pile as yours." He called out in a smooth voice.

Naruto could hear spluttering "In the _same_—Kakashi, I told you we needed to keep our things organized!"

Kakashi smiled softly and looked to the ground even though he knew Iruka wouldn't be able o see his expression. "I'm sorry, Iru-chan." He called out, somehow making his apologetic tone carry into his words.

There was silence from wherever Iruka was, and Naruto knew immediately that the man with the scar down his nose was probably blushing at the moment. Naruto smiled a bit. These two men probably really loved each other.

"So." Kakashi said, turning to look at Naruto again. "I'm still waiting."

Naruto put his head down and sighed. He supposed it wouldn't be a big deal if he told Kakashi at least part of the truth. "I'm…I'm looking for…" Naruto shut his eyes and inhaled deeply. "I'm looking for Gaa—"

"Found it!" called Iruka from down the hall. He emerged a few seconds later, holding a sheet of paper. "I've got the name for you, Naruto. He's a new tenant, so he was on top of the file." He said with a smile.

Naruto thought his heart had been beating erratically before, but now, he would be lucky if the organ didn't beat its way out of his chest. Naruto clutched his chest to ebb the pain. _Wow_, he thought, genuinely surprised. Was he that scared he would hear Gaara's name coming from Iruka's lips? Naruto looked up at Iruka with an apprehensiveness that would've made him fall to the ground if he was standing up. "S-so…" he started softly. "Wh-what's his name?" Naruto gulped noisily. _Please don't say Gaara, please don't say Gaara, please don't say—_

Iruka smiled down at him. "His name is—"

_Gaara._

"Sasori Akasuna."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Iruka cleared his throat. "Sasori Akasuna—is he your friend?"

Naruto looked up at Iruka plainly for long moments before he burst into a grin. "No—not at _all_." He said standing up.

Iruka blinked. "U-uh. Well, then. I'm sorry if—"

"No, _no_." Naruto said clasping the man's shoulders. "Please; it's _fine_. You have no idea how _fine_ this is." He smiled with his teeth down at Iruka.

Iruka blinked up and tried to smile up at Naruto. "Uhm. Alright?"

Naruto beamed down at him. "Uhm…" he started lamely. "That was really all I needed to know…"

Iruka let a small smile fall on his face. "Oh…well…Alright, then. I suppose, you'd like to leave now?"

Naruto was about to confirm that when he noticed the sad way Iruka was looking away from him. "Uh…" he started, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I still have a pie to finish…" he said slowly. "And I'm sure Seichi has more hot chocolate to gulp down so…" he smiled again, "I guess we could stay for a little while longer."

Iruka beamed up at him suddenly. "Oh! Well then. Do you think you could stay long enough for lunch? We're eating at around 2:00 pm…"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Lunch at 2:00? Uh, sure, I guess. I've got nothing to do today, and Seichi and I don't really get along by ourselves…"

Iruka took a look at Seichi who was still sitting on the couch, looking as lost as he would ever be as he watched the conversation unfold between the two. "Ah, well. It's Saturday so my sister's son is upstairs. Would you like it if I called him so you two could play, Seichi?"

Seichi looked up at Naruto. Naruto shrugged his shoulders. Seichi looked back at Iruka and shrugged his shoulders too. "I guess…" he said quietly.

Iruka beamed. "Well, then! I'm going to call him down, then. In the mean time, why don't you and Kakashi get to know each other?" Iruka looked back and forth at the two men with a smile.

Kakashi smiled at him. "Of course, I'll keep him company." He said quietly. He winked at Naruto then, and the blonde took a small step back.

"Good, good." Iruka said stepping aside. "Please make yourself at home, Naruto. My house, is your house. Just ask to use anything—the television is over there," he pointed to the screen against the living room wall that Naruto didn't notice before and winked at Seichi, "and we have a computer right there. And of course if you need to use the phone we have one on the wall by the—"

"Iruka." Kakashi interrupted lightly. Iruka turned to look at him. "I think Naruto's good for now."

Iruka looked at him blankly. "Uh…" he attempted a smile. "Oh…okay, then." He said. "I'll…go call my sister, then." He said before blinking and disappearing down that hallway again.

Naruto watched him leave with a small feeling of regret. He wanted Iruka to stay in the room to have something else to look at other than Kakashi's piercing eyes.

When he could no longer see Iruka's retreating back, Naruto stood around awkwardly before sitting back down again. He looked at Seichi, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto stuck his tongue at him. Seichi rolled his eyes and continued to sip his hot chocolate.

"Uhm…" Naruto started, not looking at Kakashi. "Is it alright if Seichi watched television?"

Kakashi, who'd been standing up with his arms folded, watching them shamelessly smiled at Seichi. "Of course." He said getting the remote from the coffee table. "What channel do you watch, Seichi?"

Seichi gulped down the last of his hot chocolate quietly before he looked up. "The history channel." He said quietly.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "The _history_ channel?" he asked incredulously. But then he shut up, because this was _Sasuke's_ son they were talking about.

Kakashi chuckled a bit before he turned to the appropriate channel. The television screen looked bigger when it was on—or maybe it was the huge tank rolling across the screen that made it looked this way. Naruto turned to see Seichi's ears perk up. "I think this is the second part of the World War Series." He said excitedly before putting his cup down on the coffee table and edging out of his seat to sit on the carpet right in front of the television.

Naruto smiled despite himself. Maybe _he_ should get a television if it would get the kid to shut up and behave like that. With his head on the boy, he almost forgot about the man across from him.

"Naruto."

The blonde started.

Kakashi chuckled. "I know you're hiding something." He said with a shake of his head. "What about that name you were going to tell me before…?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Now that his suspicions were proven wrong, Naruto hardly wanted to worry either of the landlords with them. "Uh, it was nothing, really." He said lightly. "I mean…I guess I…sort of _lied_ about the person being my friend…the person's not even my _enemy_…but now that I know it's not him…" Naruto trailed off with a small smile on his face.

He was so happy he hardly thought about all the holes in that name. It could be an alias—but Naruto hardly thought that it was likely. And besides, _Sasori Akasuna_? It was hardly the sort of name that a murderer would adopt. Naruto smiled to himself contentedly. He would probably have to dig deeper to find the whole truth, but he was too satisfied to even care that he'd forgotten the picture of Gaara in his apartment to verify.

"As long as you're not hiding some dangerous secret…" Kakashi said cautiously. "I suppose I'll leave you alone for the time being." He uncrossed his arms and exhaled. "Like Iruka said…" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the smile on Kakashi's face when he mentioned his partner. "Make yourself at home."

* * *

They'd been in Iruka's apartment for the past three hours. Naruto didn't think he could have so much to do in a single apartment, but the possibilities were endless when you had a television, a cooking Iruka in the kitchen, a handy Kakashi fixing the bathroom sink, and two kids—Iruka's nephew, Konohamaru came down from his apartment—running around with the toys Iruka's nephew brought with him.

Naruto laughed from his position on one of the dining table chairs. He'd just finished washing his face and hands from helping Kakashi fix the sink, and he was going to help Iruka finish cooking in a minute. He was glad that Konohamaru was able to come downstairs; he didn't know how long the television would've kept Seichi occupied. It had been funny to see Iruka's nephew come in—same age as Seichi but acting _his_ age—and harass Seichi into playing "ridiculous", as Seichi commented, toys. But Seichi had softened towards the wild no-front-teeth boy in less than a few minutes. Naruto smiled every time Seichi widened his eyes at every "undignified" game Konohamaru suggested they should play together, but the blonde had to grin despite himself when Seichi laughed—a sound he'd never heard genuinely from Sasuke—whenever something Konohamaru said or did humored him.

"Naruto." Iruka called from the kitchen.

Naruto stood up, walking over to the smaller man. "Yeah?"

Iruka beamed at him from his position hovering over a boiling pot. "It seems I won't be needing your help for a while." He said lightly. "Give yourself a break."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest. "Uh…are you sure? I mean. I don't mind helping out at all—"

"Don't worry about it." Iruka said dropping a few chopped vegetables into the pot. "I got almost everything done while you were helping Kakashi." He wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead. "The soup just has to boil for now. It'll be ready in an hour or so."

Naruto gave the man a small smile but still stood in the kitchen awkwardly. "Uh…so…I guess I'll tease the boys then…" he said lightly, before starting to walk away.

Iruka frowned. "Well you could always use the computer…" he said. "It's on the desk by the television. It's already on—just move the mouse and the screen will pop out. Kakashi and I never use it, so it might be a little slow…"

Naruto smiled his thanks and nodded before heading towards the contraption. It had been a long time since he used a computer. He had one back at Tsunade's place but he only used it for some work he had to get done for school, or watched hilarious videos on _ViewTube_. Naruto had to dodge a soaring toy airplane before he reached the computer. He muttered for the kids to calm down before he sat down on the chair and moved the mouse.

The home screen popped up, like Iruka said. It showed Iruka smiling widely at the camera while the grey haired man turned to give him a kiss on the cheek. Naruto blushed and clicked on the internet browser.

Hmm. What could he do on the computer anyway? He could hardly watch funny videos anymore; he was too old to enjoy that stuff….But then again, what else could he do? Naruto sighed as he clicked on _Voogle_, the largest search engine he knew of, and typed in _ViewTube_.

The site popped up a few seconds later, and Naruto found himself smiling at the red preface. It had been so long since he went on this site. He looked through the "New Video's" page and found "_Massive Skateboard Fail_". He clicked on it, not really expecting anything spectacular. The video started with a whole bunch of kids doing tricks on a ramp, but then a short blonde teen tried to do a trick and ended up doing the split on the cement, breaking his skateboard.

Naruto would've burst into a laugh it wasn't for the fact that the teen started screaming, "My balls are bleeding!"

Naruto winced and stopped the video.

Then he sighed. He didn't feel right looking at these videos at this age. Not to mention that the two kids were right behind him. Who knew what kind of video would pop up on _ViewTube_?

Naruto went back to _Voogle_ and put a hand under his chin. So now what? Maybe he could go to _WikiMedia_ and find some _knowledgeable_video's instead. Or maybe—

Naruto paused.

…or maybe he could look up the murders in Mushroom Tech.

Naruto felt a small dab of sweat form at his eyebrow. Then he shook his head. Now that he was pretty sure that Gaara didn't live near him, it couldn't hurt to find out a little more about his crimes right? Naruto raised his fingers to type and cursed when he found his fingers shaking. The blonde rolled his eyes and typed it before he could change his mind.

_Mushroom Tech. Enter._

_83,736 files found._

Naruto blinked hard at the results. The first result said _MUSHROOM TECHNICAL SCHOOL Since 1974_.

Naruto clicked on it.

It brought him to a fancy page with a brown preface and the tacky pencil and pen borders. There was a large paragraph in the front. Naruto began to read it:

_Mushroom Technical School is an intermediate through high school facility that strives to provide their children with the absolute best educational—_

Blah, blah, blah. Naruto skimmed passed the paragraph, already bored without even completing the first sentence. He clicked more things, like school curriculum, and teacher's staff. Naruto rolled his eyes. Whatever he was looking for, he probably wouldn't find it here because the site acted as if Mushroom Tech _still_ existe—

Wait.

Naruto squinted at a link on the bottom of the page. It was bold with a fancy font. MUSHROOM.T MEMORIAL it said. Naruto paused, for a reason unknown to him, for a moment before he clicked the link.

It brought him to a page, with a black preface instead of a brown one like the previous page. It showed a black and white picture of the school with flowers at the front gates, and pictures of what Naruto thought to be students. There was something that looked like a video on the bottom of picture. Naruto exhaled deeply before he clicked on it. It took it several moments to load, so the tension that built up in Naruto's subsided a bit. But then a woman popped on the screen. She was dark skinned, had cropped dark hair that defied gravity and wore a yellow woman's suit that made her look absolutely _retro_—

"Sade here, Live on CBA News—" she started in a clear voice. "and _tragedy_ has befallen on Mushroom Technical High School—"

Naruto widened his eyes. This was a news report.

"—Only two days before Christmas, unexpected deaths have befallen several students in the instituion you see behind me. Witnesses say that the man behind it all was one of their _own_ students—a senior by the name of Kaze Sabaku Gaara. Police say that surveillance cameras have captured almost every move, and Peter, I'm afraid this incident is nothing like we've ever seen before."

The camera shifted to an elderly man at a desk who had a look of utmost seriousness on his face—Naruto presumed him to be the one named Peter.

"Exactly how severe are the damages, Sade?"

"Quite Severe, Peter; the police are still doing a body count, but so far _no_ teachers have been found alive, and thirty three students have already been pronounced dead. A few witnesses say that the man suspected to have committed these awful crimes—Mr. Kaze—used a _gas _to murder these innocent people."

The woman began walking towards the entrance of the school where ambulances were parked, flashing red, and a sea of police cars and policemen were walking about, some of them glaring at the camera.

"I was _denied_ access to the school. Police say Mr. Kaze has been declared a dangerous missing criminal and he could be _anywhere_. I advise all residents in the Mushroom City area to stay indoors, and not venture out alone these next few nights until he is found. As for the severity of the situation Peter, we have a few pictures of the dead students and the station has deemed them to _explicit_ to present them on television."

The screen changed so that you could see both the woman and the man side by side. "And as for the witnesses, Sade? Have you gotten any word from them?" the man asked.

"Again, Peter, I was denied access inside the school, but there is a _crowd_ of parents and friends waiting outside the school to hear word of their children's safety…or demise." She finished gravely.

The video shifted a bit before it turned to another image. A tall woman with blonde hair looked at the camera with sadness in her eyes and had a microphone close to her lips.

"I-I just don't know…" she began, and more tears fell from her eyes. "One by one they keep coming out and…" she sobbed. "And they come out _dead_."

"And your daughter is in what grade?" asked a man.

"She's a senior." the woman sad with a shake of her head. "I just hope she's okay—oh _God_, I hope Carey's _okay_."

Naruto felt a pang of such sadness strike at his heart. He remembered Neji telling him that _all_ the seniors were killed.

Suddenly, the screen changed, and a woman appeared clutching a boy who couldn't be more than twelve. "This is heart breaking." The woman said with tears in her eyes. "That such a tragedy could happen at this school, i-it's unbelievable. And only a few days before Christmas?" She took the boy in her arms and clutched him tight. "I'm just thanking God that my son got out _alive_. They wouldn't let me in—I had to wait for two _hours_ before the police came out with a line of students—my son was one of them." She shook her head then and let out a gusty sigh. "I'm going to pray for the parents here. God knows the pain they're in right now."

The screen changed again, and a man was walking away from the camera with his hands covering his face. He was accompanied by a few policemen and he seemed to be walking away from an ambulance.

"That's my son!' the man screamed, falling into his knees and slamming his fists into the cement. The camera leaned to look at his face. He had tears streaking down his eyes and his face grimaced in such pain that Naruto flinched back at the screen. "That's my _son_." The man said with a sob. "My _boy_."

Naruto stopped the video.

He took a shaky breath.

And then he took another. He needed to breathe for a few moments.

_Poor parents_, he thought with a shake of his head. To have their children taken away from them like that. Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed again. He wasn't going to finish the video. Looking at the progress bar, he saw that there was still seven minutes of it left. He didn't think he had the heart to watch more people suffer in waiting, or find out that their kids were dead. So instead he scrolled down.

His eyes were blurred with weariness, so he had to stop and rub them for a moment before he could look back at the screen. He heard the sounds of Konohamaru and Seichi playing behind him, oblivious to the heart ache Naruto was driving himself into.

After a few tired moments, Naruto finally turned to look back at the screen. He saw messages, memorial words, news articles, and more videos that he didn't dare click.

Finally there was a link that made Naruto pause. _Musroom. Tech. Class of 2005._

Naruto took a breath and clicked on it. The link opened a new window, and Naruto started when he heard a song start to play. And the next moment Naruto felt another pang of sadness hit him. It was the _graduation_ song. The sad trumpet played in his ears and was followed by other instruments—clarinet and saxophone. They were giving the students the graduation ceremony they could never experience, Naruto thought shaking his head.

When he scrolled down he saw the names of students and their smiling graduation pictures above them. Naruto felt the depression overwhelm him when he saw the name Carey Zimmerman, and a beautiful young teen smiling brightly into the camera with her blue graduation hat tipping a bit at the side. He was sure it was that woman's daughter he saw on the news video.

As Naruto looked at the names he found that they were in alphabetical order by first names. He knew that Gaara would be the first G, and he felt the dreaded impending doom feeling approach him.

It was such a small list—only sixty three students if Naruto remembered right, so he scrolled down fairly quickly.

_Dexter Simmons, Edgar Pollen, Ellie Michel, Fatima Jacobs, Gary Michaels, Gwyneth Stryker—_

_Wait_.

Naruto blinked.

Ellie, Fatima, _Gary_—

Where was _Gaara_?

Naruto felt an emotion well up inside of him that he couldn't really describe. Did they really just _exclude_ Gaara from the list of graduates?

Naruto tried to quell the small side of him that wanted to be angry with an effort.

And then he felt a little sick to his stomach.

Did he really just get angry that a school that'd had to face such tragedy just ignored the existence of their _murderer_? What was wrong with him? The school had every _right_ not to include Gaara into the list. How would a parent feel, if they were crying over this page, watching the smiling eyes of their son or daughter, and had to scroll to see their _murderer_ on the same page?

Naruto shook his head. He knew _he_ would be angry.

With another sigh he continued to scroll down the page, picture by picture. Honestly, these students looked so _innocent_ in their photos. What did they do to deserve such violent deaths? Naruto lingered on every picture, intent on paying as much respect as he could to each. He couldn't help but smiling at the pictures where students snuck in the peace sign with their fingers, or the ones where the student made funny faces. Looking at the pictures, Naruto could almost tell who were the class clowns, the cheerleaders, if they had any, and the jocks.

He was up to the R's now, and he had to linger a bit at a long haired teen that looked to be of Indian descent. She had dark hair dripping over her shoulders, and soft features that made Naruto's eyes soften. This girl would have probably made out to be one hot chick. But now she was_dead_, Naruto thought with a resigned sigh. Rosanne Iskar was her name.

With another shake of his head, Naruto scrolled down again. The next name was Reno Littleton. Naruto quirked a small smile at the tongue he stuck out in the picture. _Total punk_, Naruto guessed. He closed his eyes in a form of respect before he scrolled to the next picture. Sammy Taylor. It was another girl, almost dangerously pale, but had green eyes that looked two times bigger than they were supposed to be through her large glasses. She had a quiet smile and short black hair. Naruto admired her features for a few minutes before he scrolled down to the next picture—

And then Naruto felt a jolt so strong up his spine that he nearly dented the mouse with the strength of it.

In front of him was a teen—a redhead, with light brown eyes surrounded by a shade of darkness that indicated a lack of sleep, and skin that flushed ever so slightly at the cheeks.

But it was more than that—it was more than the _resemblance_, it was the name, oh gods, it was the _name_—

_Sasori Akasuna._

Naruto hardly held back the sob of despair that threatened to rip out of his throat. There was no doubt about it now, was there?

It was Gaara who lived in the fifth floor bedroom.

* * *

End of Chapter

**Author Notes**

**Word Count: **9,700

Hell yeah, motherfathers; an update! =]

But, damn it, school is right around the corner. Will I be able to keep up with my updates?

Until next time.


	7. I Guess it All Just Goes Down From Here

**Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Seven: _I Guess It All Goes Down From Here_

* * *

"What are you looking at?"

Naruto was too deep into his thoughts to start. Instead he blinked slowly, sat back in the computer chair and sighed.

He was screwed.

"Who is that?"

That was Konohamaru coming up from behind him, leaning onto the chair with a familiarity that said he'd been in this apartment many times before.

Naruto was about to turn off the page with Sasori's face when Seichi pointed to it.

"Hey," he said. "It's that man." He said quietly.

Naruto turned to him slowly. "What man?"

Seichi looked at him levelly. "The man on the staircase. "

Naruto's expression slowly grew more intense. He shifted so he could put both hands on Seichi's shoulders. "_No_," he started gravely. " You said that the man in the picture I showed you yesterday was the man you saw on the staircase."

Seichi squinted at him. "I…" he looked away thoughtfully. Then he shook his head. "They both look the same."

Naruto felt dread overwhelm him. Please, _no_. "Seichi," he began slowly. "They're two different people. Now tell me: the man you saw in the staircase—was it the one in the picture, or is it the man you see now?"

Seichi tried to pull away. "I don't…I don't really remember the picture in the paper from yesterday. I don't—Why is this such a big deal?"

Naruto was looking down at Seichi with wide eyes.

Seichi looked back with a little fear in his. "You're…hurting me…" he tried to say.

Naruto started a bit as he pulled away from Seichi. He'd been squeezing the life out of his upper arms. "Sorry."

Seichi looked back at him with distrusting eyes. "Why do you care so much?"

Naruto dismissed that question immediately. There was just no way he was going to tell Seichi about the whole investigation that his father was under; he didn't want to scare the kid.

"Go away and play." He said shaking his head and turning back to the computer. "I'm busy."

Seichi squinted at him. "Not until you tell me what this guy is about. Does he…have anything to do with my dad?"

Naruto froze mid-click and sighed gustily. "No kid. It's nothing. Go and play."

The boy opened his mouth to say something else, but Naruto turned to him with a glare that shut him up. Seichi lifted his chin in defiance for a moment before Konohamaru, surprisingly silent through out the entire thing, pulled him away insistently, whispering 'come, come'.

Naruto glared at the boy until he was in the middle of the room again, being forced to sit down on the carpet in front of a mass of toys on the floor by Iruka's nephew. Then the blonde sighed and turned back to the computer screen. He scowled.

As if he wasn't confused enough. Now he had a lot more to think about.

He looked at the picture of Sasori with a hand under his chin and in deep thought. The man didn't really look like Gaara in the picture. Gaara had larger eyes, no eyebrows, and (with what he could make out on a printed picture) paler skin.

Naruto shook his head. Damn it. He thought he had most of it figured out. When he saw the deceased photo of Sasori, he immediately thought that Gaara had somehow stolen his _name_, and was using it to get passed city officials or something. But now…now Seichi was telling him that he wasn't sure if what he saw was Sasori or Gaara. Did that mean that Gaara was using the man's _identity _too? Or was it the other way around?

Wait, Naruto, _wait_. You don't have to make this more complicated than it already is. Let's look at it from one direction.

If Gaara was the one that Seichi saw in the staircase, and was in fact living in the apartment across from him, then the only reason why Seichi wouldn't be able to tell whether or not it was Sasori, was because Gaara's disguise was impeccable.

But.

Yesterday Seichi said that the picture he saw yesterday was of Gaara, so why would he be unsure of it now?

Naruto rolled his eyes in desperate exasperation before he leaned back into his chair and sighed. This was getting out of hand. He should tell his suspicions to the police and let them handle it. God forbid he actually became _involved_ in this whole mess.

With another shake of his head he leaned towards the computer again. He eyed the picture wearily. He wished he'd brought the picture of Gaara with him so he could compare, but he had a pretty good idea of what the guy looked like in his head.

For one thing, the Sasori person in the picture was smiling so serenely back at the camera—he saw no such thing in any of Gaara's pictures. In the murderer's younger photos, he had the thin ghost of a smile at his lips, but they were never...what was the word Naruto wanted to use?..._genuine_. This guy, however, looked like he smiled _all_ the time. Also, in one of the colored pictures of Gaara he had brown hair—not red like Seichi said he saw yesterday. And eyebrows. Sasori had thin eyebrows, possibly groomed, while Gaara had none—not even in his younger photos.

Naruto squinted a little harder at the photograph of Sasori. He really wished they posted a picture of Gaara on the graduation site, so he could sit and really compare.

Naruto paused. He was in front the internet for Pete's sake. Of course he could find a picture of the two and compare.

But wait. Naruto didn't want to do that. He knew that Sasori and Gaara were two different people. As for the possibility that it was Sasori instead of Gaara that Seichi saw, that was impossible because Sasori was _dead_. Naruto let out a long sigh, Exactly. Sasori was dead, and Gaara stole his identity. But…but why? Why steal the identity of a dead person? And why this _particular _dead person?

Naruto slapped his cheeks in further exasperation before he sighed again. Damn it. He just didn't know what to think.

Looking up wearily from the keyboard, he looked back at the screen. Sasori Akasuna. Handsome, like Gaara. Pale, like Gaara. Dead, _un_-like Gaara.

Right?

Out of sheer spontaneity, Naruto clicked on the picture. He was startled when another page opened, and he found a half page list of words staring back at him. Sitting up, Naruto began to read.

_School Valedictorian._

Naruto blinked. Well, now.

_President of School Relations Committee  
President of School Reforms Committee  
President of Class of 1999 (Four Years)  
Secretary of Principle Wimbledon  
_

Naruto stopped reading. And there was still so much more to go. This guy was obviously a spot-on kind of guy. There was another subtitle of achievements for the student called "Awards" and that was another twenty-something statements long. Naruto would've rolled his eyes if it wasn't for the fact that this guy was dead.

He scrolled to the bottom of the page and found a small sentence. When he read the subtitle above it, it stated, "Graduation Statement"

Naruto leaned forwards in interest. He had to say a graduation statement while he was receiving his diploma during the graduation ceremony. Graduation statements were supposed to be one line of what your dreams were, or what you expected your future to be like. Naruto sucked a breath and prepared to read what would probably depress him, seeing that this Sasori person was dead and probably wouldn't get any chance to fulfill whatever dream he had. With an other shake of his head, the blonde began to read:

_To eliminate the barriers made by cosmic prophets against the theories of neo-embalmination techniques._

Naruto blinked.

_What_?

The blonde shook head. Was that valedictorian talk or was this guy a freak? Naruto read the statement one more time. What the hell was…em…bal…mination…?

He opened a new tab and Voogled it.

_Do you mean… Embalmer?_

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Did that mean that the term 'embalmination' didn't exist? He clicked "Embalmer" to see what would come up.  
_  
Voogle Dictionary: Embalmer: Hands on counterpart to morticians; Embalmers prepare corpses by disinfecting the body, releasing excess air from the lungs, draining blood from circulatory system, replacing it with embalming fluids and applying cosmetics to make the corpses more life like._

Naruto blinked. His question was answered then: This guy was a freak. The blonde leaned back in his chair and stared at the definition of embalmers before he shook his head. So Sasori apparently wanted to empty dead bodies and put make up on them.

The blonde went back to his other tab to re-read the statement.

_Neo-embalmination._

Hmm.

Naruto went back to the definitions tab and typed that. The results were like the other, a chance at revising his search—

_Do you mean…Neo-Embalming Methods Organization (NEMO)?_

Naruto squinted at that. How did one go from Neo-Embalmination to NEMO?

He clicked the suggestion.

_2,356 files found._

Hmm. That wasn't nearly as much as any other search he'd typed in. He clicked the first link naturally, as it had _NEMO _and the name of the organization in large letters. When he clicked it, it brought him to a page even more depressing than the graduation page had been. The preface was black and white and right in the center was a colorless photograph of two men staring into the camera with what _could_ have been smiles. Behind the two men was a pair of legs. It looked as if a man was laying down on a bed-or perhaps a table given how flat it looked in the photograph. But what really seemed peculiar was the small little ticket that hung on the laying person's toe. Naruto thought it looked like a tag of some sort. What was man doing lying on a metal table with a tag on his toe?

There was a small paragraph underneath the picture, but the words were so small Naruto had to lean in to read them.

_Attempt # 23: Success  
Gender: Male  
D.O.B: 1936, July 3  
D.O.D: 1992, December 26  
C.O.D: Health related/ Heart attack, stroke etc.  
A.O.D: 56 years old  
Success Description: 1993, February: subject responded to 400 watt shocks to the-_

"Naruto?"

The blonde started faintly before he sat up straight and turned around in his chair. He saw Iruka staring at the screen behind him with a questioning look in his eyes. "A-ah, Iruka." he said lamely. "I, uhm...I'm just-"

"What are you looking at?"

Naruto looked at the screen for a moment before turning back to the scarred man. "It's nothing." he said shaking his head. He turned back to the screen to turn the page off. "Just doing a little research is all."

Iruka raised his eyebrows. "Research?" he said standing up straight. "I didn't know you went to school."

"School? No, _God_, No." Naruto said shaking his head. "I just...this is for a friend. He doesn't have a computer...so..."

Iruka nodded his head before smiling. "I understand. I just came here to tell you that Kakashi wanted to speak to you. If he wants you to work, you can turn him down. That man is too lazy for his own good." he said craning his neck and frowning at the said man who was now walking into the living room.

Naruto stood up then and smiled sheepishly. "It's no big deal, Iruka." Naruto said walking to Kakashi. Iruka patted his shoulder before he could walk out of reach and told him lunch would be ready soon.

The blonde turned to nod at him before he reached the grey haired man. "You wanted me, Kakashi?"

The man looked up from whatever he was looking at and smiled pleasantly at Naruto. "Yes, I did." he said lightly. "Follow me, Naruto."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the Kakashi and followed him down the long hallway he'd been down before to fix the bathroom. But this time they passed the bathroom, and Kakashi led him to a room further down the hallway. They stopped at a small door painted in a light blue color. Kakashi opened it, turning to smile at Naruto, and entered it. Naruto hesitated, but he followed.

He had to pause at the doorway before he could enter in completely, however.

Because of the guns.

_Everywhere_.

They plastered on the wall as if on display, and next to them were various awards, and trophies, and papers scattered everywhere—

"U-uhh..." Naruto's eyes were wide enough for his eyeballs to fall out of their sockets.

Kakashi turned and smiled at him. "Oh." he said looking around. "These?" he gestured towards the guns and the mess. "Don't worry about it. This is my study. Close the door behind you."

Naruto did as he was told, with shaking hands.

Kakashi sat down in a chair and looked at Naruto with that same pleasant smile on his for a while before he chuckled. "I brought you into this room because this is the one place Iruka will never enter. He's not much for messes."

What about the _guns_? Naruto blurted in his head.

Suddenly, the pleasant smile fell from Kakashi's face, and he crossed his arms. "Naruto." he said gravely. For some reason, the blonde stood up straight.

"U-uh, yes?"

The gray haired man stared at him for a while longer before shaking his head. His smile still didn't come back. "It took me some time, but I've ruled out that you're an undercover cop or a criminal."

Naruto started. "What?"

Kakashi continued, ignoring him. "No undercover cop or criminal would be _stupid _enough to bring a missing policeman's _son_ into an ex-policeman's apartment."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Kakashi didn't let him.

"At first I thought you were undercover. But I couldn't remember you from the force, and you didn't seem to understand all the policeman codes I threw at you."

Naruto twitched. That would explain how strangely Kakashi would talk when they were fixing the sink earlier that day.

"Then I thought you were a criminal. A good one at that, seeing as you had your entire background ready, and a women-Tsunade was it?- to fill us in beforehand about everything about you. You would have been the perfect criminal, or rather a pawn for a criminal, perhaps even the first part in a criminal's master plan, but when I took Sasuke's son aside, he told me you were an idiot, and that his mother asked you to take care of him." Kakashi sighed then, and shook his head. "That's why I'm going to ask you this, Naruto. I'm going to ask you a question, and I want the truth. I will not be responsible for your life after your answer, seeing as I will take any threat towards my family personally and take you down, but you still have to tell me truth. And I'll have you know, I'm very good at picking out a lie. So. Naruto. Are you here to threaten my family?"

"No!" Naruto shouted helplessly. "Oh _god_, no, I don't even—!"

" Are you part of some master conspiracy to do anything illegal?"

"No! I've _never_—"

"Do you think Iruka is hot?"

"_No_!—I haven't— Wait _what_?"

"_No_?" Kakashi laughed. "Well, now I _have_ to kill you." Kakashi made a move for one of his guns-

"W-w-wait- I-I don't- _What_?" Naruto started scrambling at the door.

The grey haired man laughed again and shook his head. "Calm down, kid. I'm not going to hurt you."

Naruto had already turned and was trying to force the door open, but it was locked.

"The door locks from the inside." Kakashi said lightly before shaking his head and laughing again.

Naruto turned to face him quickly and slammed his back against the door. He looked at Kakashi with wide crazed eyes.

Kakashi laughed at him again. "Another reason why you couldn't be a policeman or a criminal. You give too much away with your face."

Naruto, practically on the verge of tears, choked out a cry, "Wh-what the hell is this?" He yelled. "W-what is this _about_?"

Kakashi smiled at him. "Relax, Naruto. I don't want Iruka to know we're in here."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Kakashi raised a hand to interrupt him.

"Just listen to me, Naruto." he said lightly. "This isn't a joke." then the man paused and put a thoughtful look. "Well- at least in the _beginning _it wasn't." he laughed and shook his head. "Truth is I only wanted to know the answer to the first question—" he broke off with another small chuckle and leaned back in his chair.

Naruto scowled at him. "What the hell are you talking about? I—!"

"I told you I wasn't joking, Naruto. I thought you were a policeman or a criminal. I knew you were lying about something. First you came in with Sasuke's son, and then you want to know information about one of my tenants— how could I _not _suspect something suspicious from you?"

Naruto adopted a disbelieving look and shook his head. "I-I—"

"You don't have to say anything, Naruto." Kakashi said, juggling the handgun in his hands. Naruto twitched every time the gun landed in his hands. "I just want you to tell me the truth from now on, all right?"

Naruto didn't answer. He kept his eyes on the gun.

"I want you to tell me the real reason you wanted to the know name of the new tenant."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but he kept his eyes on the gun. "I-I- don't think I can." he said shakily.

"And why is that?"

"N-Neji. He told me to keep it to myself."

"Oh." the Kakashi said with an amused tone. "So this _is_ crime related. Remember, you're talking to a former officer. Everything they know, I already know."

Naruto twitched. This man _did_ already seem to know that Sasuke was missing. And he seemed to know Neji… "They're looking for Sasuke." Naruto said slowly. "They say he's looking for a man...a man that...I think...may be living...in your apartment building…"

He finally took his eyes off the gun to look at Kakashi's expression. The grey haired man looked at him with thoughtful eyes. "What man?" he asked inquiringly.

Naruto gulped. "Gaara Sabako Kaze."

For the first time, Naruto saw Kakashi look surprised. It lasted for only a moment, but he saw it. "Gaara?" the man asked disbelievingly. "That's impossible." he said finally. "A man like Gaara would never come to live somewhere so close to where he committed his crimes..." Kakashi looked away thoughtfully. "Or would he…?"

"So you know him?" Naruto asked. "You know Gaara?"

"Define 'know'." the grey haired man said, still not really paying full attention to blonde. "I saw the news reports and was there for the search, but I was never assigned to him. Shikamaru was."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "W-who's Shikamaru?"

Kakashi waved a dismissive hand. "Just another policeman. Leader of his unit. Brilliant when it comes to masterminded criminals. I remember him being put off the case because of something personal...but forget all that. What makes you think Mr. Akasuna is Gaara?"

Naruto opened his mouth to explain, but the grey haired man juggled his gun again and he twitched.

Kakashi frowned. "Your fear of this gun is pathetic, Naruto. You are in charge of Sasuke _Uchiha's_ son. Sasuke, as in the man with many enemies. If someone held a gun to Seichi, what would you do? Run for your life, leaving him alone because you're too _scared_?" Kakashi said the last part scathingly, glaring at the blonde as he did so.

Naruto huffed violently. "How dare you. I'd never leave that kid alone, even if he is an asshole—"

"Then grow some balls and stop flinching from this gun." Kakashi raised the said gun and pointed it to Naruto then.

Naruto jerked violently to the side, but Kakashi's aim followed. Naruto gritted his teeth and glared. "_Stop_ it!" he growled.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Or what?"

"Or _nothing_—just _stop_!"

"No." Kakashi said softly before he cocked the gun in a swift motion and pulled the trigger.

"Aaarrghh!" Naruto screamed helplessly as he raised his hands to cover his face.

But protection against what?

Naruto peeked up from behind his arm to see Kakashi smirking at him, with the gun still pointed in his direction.

The grey haired man pulled the trigger a few more times before putting the gun down. "There haven't been bullets in any of these guns for years, Naruto." the man said lightly. He turned to place the thing on the table before stretching a bit. "Now." he said, looking serious again. "What makes you think my tenant is Gaara?"

Naruto, looking more than just a little harassed, stared at the man with distrusting, wide eyes. He was breathing hard, and his mouth was open unattractively. Finally he took a gasping breath, and opened his mouth to speak. "I—" he paused to breath again. "It started when they gave me a picture—"

"Kakashi! Naruto!"

Naruto jumped when he heard Iruka shouting their names. Kakashi looked to the door and sighed. "Looks like we're going to have to finish this conversation another time..." he said lightly. "We don't want to worry Iru-chan." Kakashi sighed then, and walked passed Naruto to unlock the door with a key Naruto hadn't noticed before. The man grinned at him before he opened the door. "Oh, and Naruto. Do me a favor and don't tell Iruka I pointed a gun at you." he winked at the blonde and headed out. "Close the door behind you." he called out as he walked down the hallway.

Naruto stood at the doorway with his heart beating fast enough to pierce through his chest. He turned around to take another look at the gun that was pointed at him just a few minutes ago, lying on the table almost harmlessly. Naruto closed his eyes and let out another tired breath. He really hoped he never had to face up to one of those things.

He exited the room and closed the door behind him, then walked down the long hallway into the dining room. He entered to find Seichi and the other boy already at the table, playing with strange looking vehicles and rolling the wheels on the table. Kakashi was also already there, with his arms crossed at the head chair. He smiled when Naruto walked in.

"Naruto."

The blonde turned to find Iruka walking out of the kitchen with a few plates. Naruto stepped aside to let him through. "Uh, hey." he said awkwardly before he sat down in a chair at the width of the table.

Iruka smiled at him and shook his head. "You were with Kakashi a long time. I hope he didn't work you too hard."

Naruto made sure to avoid Kakashi's gaze as he laughed nervously. His hands were still shaking from fear. "Ah...n-no...N-not at all."

"Hey blondie." said the buck toothed boy in front of him with a slight lisp.

"Konohamaru, don't be rude." Iruka warned.

"Whatever." the boy said waving a hand. "Say, can you bring Seichi up tomorrow? We wanna play some more."

Naruto was still too ruffled up to protest against the child's bluntness, so he lazily turned his gaze to Seichi. The boy looked back a little shyly. He put the toy he had in his hand down as if he was ashamed of it and looked down timidly. Naruto wanted to roll his eyes. Leave it up to Sasuke to make his son feel like he shouldn't have some children's fun once in a while.

"Seichi." he said lightly. "Do you want to go to Seichi's tomorrow?"

The raven haired boy looked up slowly. "Uhm...kind of."

The blonde sighed "Then we'll go tomorrow."

"Hell yeah!" the other boy yelled.

"Konohamaru!" Iruka warned again poking a head from the kitchen to glare at the boy. "We don't say words like that at the table.

"Well I'm not _at _the table, am I?" the boy replied. "I'm _next _to it."

From the corner of his eye, Naruto could see Kakashi chuckle as Iruka smacked the kid repeatedly on his head.

Naruto wondered how a man could smile minutes after threatening a person with a gun.

* * *

"Why the hell does your school start so early?" Naruto grumbled as he wiped some more sleep crust away from his eyes.

Seichi sat in the back of the car with his arms crossed. "It's your fault for not sleeping early enough." he said with a voice that was clearly more awake than Naruto was.

Naruto mumbled something under his breath before starting the car.

"Can you hurry _up_?" Seichi half shouted. "I can't let her win again."

"Listen kid. I already skipped a freaking shower so you could beat that Sampson girl or whatever to school. Don't rush me anymore than I have to."

Naruto eased out of the driveway with squinting eyes. He really didn't have to be so careful. It was so early that hardly anyone was outside.

"So what time does your school end today Seichi?"

"The same time it always ends." the boy replied moodily. "Five o'clock."

"You're in school for ten hours everyday?" the blonde said shaking his head. "There should be a law against that.

"It's nine and a half hours, actually." the boy said looking out the window. "And it's a private school, so public school laws don't apply."

Naruto frowned. "So do they like...beat you and stuff?"

Seichi glared. "Private school, not military school."

"You _said_ they could do whatever they wanted."

"They're trying to discipline our brains. You don't need to beat someone to do that."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "My folks used to beat the crap out of me and I-"

"-turned out just _fine_, didn't you?" Seichi replied sarcastically.

"Shut up, kid." Naruto said chuckling.

The boy laughed at him and turned to look back out the window.

They were quiet for a while, with Naruto driving with cruising speed on the highway and Sasuke's son looking idly out the window.

"So..."Naruto started, a half hour later. "When did this whole...race to beat your girlfriend to school start?"

The boy sputtered. "My _girl_-she is _not_ my girlfriend!"

Naruto laughed, happy to ruffle the kid up. "That's what Sasuke used to say every time I would find him alone with Sakura." he said softly, smiling at the small snippet memories. He was surprised when Seichi made a disgusted noise.

"Jenna is _nothing_ like mom." he spat. "She doesn't curse, she doesn't hurt me, and she isn't an _idiot_."

Naruto stared with wide eyes at the rear view mirror, watching Seichi. "You're talking about your mother, right? It's your _mother_ that doesn't do all those things, right?"

Seichi glared at him through the mirror but said nothing.

"Seichi—"

"Just shut up and drive. Even if I told you the truth, I doubt you'd believe me seeing as you're in love with the bitch."

Naruto nearly swerved off his lane. "_Seichi_. First of all, you _don't_ call your mother a...f_-_female _dog_. Secondly, your mum and I-"

"Deserve each other. You're both violent and stupid."

"Seichi! Where the hell is this coming from?" Naruto took a chance and turned to face the boy in his back seat so he could see his eyes.

Seichi childishly crossed his arms looked away. "Just forget it." he grumbled quietly.

Naruto made a frustrated sound. "No, I won't just _forget _it, Seichi. Is there something I need to know? Something you need to tell me? About Sakura?"

The boy didn't respond. He kept his eyes at the window until Naruto had to turn his head and face the traffic again. The rest of the ride was in silence, with Naruto breathing hard at the wheel and Seichi doing the same in the back. The tension in the vehicle was thick, but neither wanted to say anything.

When they were easing into the street of Seichi's school, Naruto took a small breath, and spoke. "We're going to talk about this when you get home, Seichi."

"We're not going to talk about anything." the boy said before he opened the door and stepped out. He closed the door hard before stomping to the entrance of his school.

Naruto watched him with tired eyes. Then he cursed under his breath. "Damn it."

There was obviously something going on between Seichi and his mother that he didn't know, or didn't understand. He had hoped that it was only Seichi having a hissy fit because his father wasn't around but...something was making him doubt that theory. Seichi didn't seem like the kind of kid who was bent on hating everything like his father was. He seemed simpler than that...He seemed to be willing to let go if he was just given the chance. That's why Naruto didn't think all those hints to Sakura's...strange behavior was a lie.

The blonde sighed again. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't necessarily have to work today, because of that week he got off...but he really didn't feel like going home and crashing either. Naruto blinked ahead of him. He still hadn't moved his car from the front of Seichi's school.

Maybe...

Naruto sat up straight.

Maybe he could visit Sakura? She didn't _say _that he couldn't, and he was sure he would love to hear how well he and Seichi were getting along. Er—or rather that they haven't killed each other yet.

With his mind set, Naruto started the car again. He would visit Sakura today and perhaps ask a few questions. There would be no harm in that, right?

* * *

Naruto was surprised to find a plain black car sitting at the driveway of Sakura's house as he parked beside it. He wondered if this was Sakura's second car or something, but he didn't think so. The only reasonable explanation was that Sakura had someone over. Perhaps her parents? Or maybe another one of those police officers? Naruto shook his head at that one. If it was a police man, he would've come in a police car.

He went up to the door and knocked lightly. Sakura had a home with acoustics that could carry the sound of a knock on a door throughout the house, is what she told him the last time he came.

There was no answer for fifteen seconds, so Naruto knocked again, a little louder this time.

He heard a bit of shuffling, and he smiled. She was opening the door now.

"Naruto?"

Naruto blinked. This wasn't Sakura. It was,"Ino?" The blonde woman stood at the doorway with rolling pins in her hair. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"What am _I_ doing here?" she asked in a bored tone. "What are _you_ doing here? It's eight in the morning on a _Monday_."

Naruto blinked again. "U-uhm. I-I was visiting Sakura."

Ino sighed gustily in the blonde's face and shrugged one shoulder. "Sakura isn't here."

"Oh. Do you know where she is?"

She shrugged her shoulders again and yawned. "Dunno. She called me up on Saturday at four in the damn morning to ask me to watch the house."

"To _watch_ the house?"

"That's what I _said_, right?" she confirmed, annoyed. "Anyways, I don't know where she is. She hasn't been here since...since..." she yawned again. "Since Saturday."

Naruto stared at her. "W-well did you speak to her before she left? Asked where she was going?"

Ino glared at him and crossed her arms. "She wasn't here when I came to the house." she said dismissively. "Besides, you know Sakura and I aren't friends anymore. We're practically sworn enemies. I doubt it was any of my business to ask anyway."

Naruto looked at her incredulously. "So you just said yes to watching over her house without asking anything?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "She was urgent on the phone, Naruto. What do you want me to say? She sounded like she had something to do, so here I am."

Naruto continued to stare at her in disbelief. He didn't really know what to think. Maybe Sakura took a vacation or something? But why would she ask _Ino_ to watch the house?

"Ino, can I come in?"

Ino sneered at him. "Who the hell do you think I am, Naruto? I'm in my pajamas."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Come on Ino, you're hardly something to look at at eight in the morning."

The woman snorted unattractively at him and stepped aside to let him in. Naruto nudged past her and stepped inside the house.

He paused.

"Uh…who are you?"

The man he saw in the kitchen turned to face him with a cigarette in his mouth. "Who wants to know?"

Naruto twitched. "_I_ want to know, you—"

"Calm down, Naruto." said Ino coming up behind him. "You didn't honestly think I'd live in this house by myself did you? I had to bring my hubby with me. Besides, Shika and Sasuke are cool."

"Shika?" Naruto asked incredulously. But he shook his head and sighed. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. I just need-"

"Why are _you_ here, anyway?" the woman said, collapsing into the couch. A cigarette magically appeared between her fingers and she put it to her mouth.

Naruto twitched. "I just wanted to speak to Sakura about something..."

Ino looked at him for long moments before smirking. A lighter magically appeared between her fingers and she lit the cigarette. She took one long drag and tapped the ashes so it would fall tragically onto Sakura's flower imprinted couch.

Naruto twitched again.

"Just to talk to her, huh..." Ino said slowly. She smirked harder this time, and leaned so that Naruto had an unwanted view of her dangling cleavage. "Do you do that often, Naruto...?" she started slowly. "Come on a _Monday_ morning...when everyone's bound to be out...Seichi at school...Sasuke at work...with Sakura here...all _alone_...just to _talk_ with her?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. What was this woman getting at?

The blonde woman chuckled. "Naruto. Are you and Sakura... having and affair?"

Naruto sputtered. "W-_what_?"

The man in the kitchen chuckled. He wasn't even looking at them. Instead he was leaning against the sink, twirling the cigarette between his fingers.

Ino smiled. "It's nothing we've never done before." she said looking at Naruto with knowing eyes. "Sasuke and I had a little fling when he started working at the station, after all." she shrugged her shoulders and winked at Naruto.

"_What_." Naruto said gravely. Not even as a question. If he heard that Sasuke had been _cheating _on Sakura, he would-

Ino laughed at him. "Joking!" she let out a nasty cackle that made her double over on the couch. "You should have seen your _face_!"

Naruto let out a disgusted noise and glared at her. "I still can't believe Sakura asked you to watch the house." he said mostly to himself.

"What makes it so difficult to believe?" the man at the counter asked lightly.

Naruto turned to glare at him. "What do you mean what makes it so hard to believe?" Naruto asked. "Ino and Sakura have hated each other for years."

"Is that so..." the man replied, never raising his voice.

Naruto squinted at him. "How do you not know that? Ino said you two were...together."

Ino cackled from behind him. "He's my hubby!" she exclaimed. "My one night stand hubby."

Naruto twitched away from her, then he turned to look back at the man leaning against the counter. He had a sleeveless T-shirt on and dark jeans and looked back at Naruto with bored eyes. Naruto chocked. "You..." he started quietly. "You brought some sort of _escort_ to Sakura's house?" he shouted incredulously to Ino.

Ino laughed. "Get a grip, Naruto. I haven't been that kind of girl for years." she took another drag of her cigarette. "He made his way into the house a few hours after I did. Started talking about an investigation or some shit like that." Ino shrugged her shoulders. "Couldn't get him to fuck me, but that's all good." she laughed again. "He'll be here a while. More than enough time for me to win him with my charm." She winked at Naruto.

Naruto shivered. "What the hell is wrong with you, Ino?"

The blonde smiled lazily and leaned one arm against the arm rest. "Sakura _might_ have had a few wine bottles in her basement..." she trailed off and took another drag of her cigarette.

Naruto stared at her for a moment longer before he turned to the man in the kitchen. "So who are you exactly? And what are you doing here?"

The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew a puff of smoke in front of him. "You can call me Nara." the man said lightly. "I'm here to trace the steps of the missing Uchihas."

Naruto blinked at him. "Trace the steps...Are you a policeman?"

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Something like that." he dug into his pocket then, and took out a badge to show Naruto.

Naruto squinted at it. It certainly _looked_ official. "Who…hired you?"

The man chuckled. "Hired? More like assigned. I was assigned here by the boss. Hatake."

Naruto blinked. Then Ino wasn't lying when she said this man and Sasuke knew each other. But he still felt a bit wary about the man. He didn't really trust the two people living in Sakura's house. And speaking of Sakura, where the hell was she?

"You wouldn't happen to know where Sakura went, do you?"

The man brushed his hair back with his hands. The strands hung across his shoulders messily, and glistened as if he just left the shower. "I have an idea..." he said lightly. "Not sure I should tell you..."

Naruto scowled. "Sakura made me in charge of her _son_, thank you very much. So I'd say I probably have more of a right to know then you do."

The man smiled at him. "Haruno also let this woman watch over her house." he said pointing to Ino. " Are you saying she has just as much a right to know as well?"

Naruto glared at him. "That's different. I have _no_ idea what the hell Ino's doing here."

The man shrugged his shoulders. "I'm only following orders, anyway. I'm going to do my job and not reveal any information the way I'm _paid_ not to."

Naruto continued to glare at the man. _Damn it_, he thought. He couldn't really argue there. "What was your name again?"

"Nara," the man said. "Shikamaru Nara."

Naruto blinked. "Shikamaru?" Where had he heard that name before?

The man looked at him. "Yes?"

Naruto shook his head. "Forget it. I, " he looked at his watch. "I have to go." he made a move to step out, but paused when he saw Ino sprawled on the couch with her eyes closed. When had she fallen asleep? She had an unfinished cigarette butt smeared on the couch. Naruto shut his eyes and sighed. "Do me a favor and make sure she doesn't mess up the house anymore than she already has?" he asked, turning to look at the policeman again.

The man leaning on the counter saluted him and turned to walk out of the kitchen. Naruto followed him with his eyes as he walked up the stairs, then he turned to make his leave.

When he got into his car he put his head on the wheel and lay there for several minutes.

Why was his life becoming so complicated?

He moved into his apartment mere _weeks_ ago, and now he was taking care of a kid, dodging _bullets _and finding out his friend had run off somewhere. Naruto banged his head for a third time against the wheel. He guessed it was all just going to go downhill from here.

With another gusty sigh, he started the car and made his way out of the driveway.

He'd been driving for several minutes when his phone rang. He picked it up tiredly and answered. "Yeah...?"

"Naruto."

The blonde sat up straight. "Kiba? What's up? Are you at work?"

There was a moment of silence at the other end. "I-I'm not going to work today."

Naruto blinked. "Oh. Did you call in sick?"

"No."

"Uhm...okay? So, what's up? Why did you—?"

"Naruto." the man said, interrupting him.

"Yes?"

"You're..." there was another long pause. "You'd be my friend no matter what I did, right?"

Naruto blinked slowly. "_Kiba_," Naruto started gravely. "Did you kill someone?"

There was a laugh. "Almost."

Naruto took a shaky breath. "_Kiba_, What the hell have you _done_?" he asked seriously.

"It's...it's nothing—well—it _is_ something but it's...it isn't...it's not...something you'd expect."

Naruto sighed frustratingly. "Just tell me what you've done..." Naruto said lowly.

There was another laugh at the other end. "Alright, alright...just...just promise to be my friend after I tell you this..."

Naruto blinked slowly. "As long as you haven't killed anyone."

A chuckle. "Maybe you will rather I did kill someone...after I tell you..." the man said softly on the other end.

Naruto tensed. "Just tell me."

A sigh on the other end. "Alright. Naruto…I..."

* * *

Somewhere on Mayflower Avenue an old woman was heading out to go to work. She closed the door of her house and walked up to her car. As she walked, she saw a young man driving a large SUV with a cell phone in his ear. She shook her head. Kids these days.

She walked towards her car with a sigh, and reached to open her door when she heard a strangled shout—

"You did _WHAT!_?"

Then the young man's vehicle crashed into a lamp post.

* * *

"Let's face it Mr. Uchiha. Your so-called guardian isn't coming." said Mrs. Eartburn with a shake of her head. "You'll have to use the school's escort service."

Seichi rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He'd been waiting for the idiot blonde to come and pick him up for almost a half an hour. "Whatever."

"We do not say, _whatever_, on school premises young man-"

"Well we're not _quite_ on school premises, are we, Mrs. Eatburn?" the boy replied with a glare.

The woman beside him fumed in silent anger. Seichi could feel it and he wanted to laugh. He knew his parents were paying something extra so the adults in the school wouldn't harass him as much as they did the other kids about rules and other nonsense. He was only there to learn and become the smartest first grader there ever was. He didn't need lessons in _manners_.

"Fine, then, Mr. Uchiha." the woman huffed. "I will order the escort to take you home. Do you know your new address?"

Seichi put on a thoughtful look. He remembered the avenue and the direction they were supposed to go in to get there. That should be enough. He nodded his head.

"Very good, then." the woman said. "Follow me."

He had to follow her into the building to order the escort, who was just one the sanitary workers turned _chauffeur_. They took him to the back of the school where he was led into a dark vehicle, two doors short of a limo. He got in, told the chauffeur what he knew about the way to get to the idiot's apartment and was on his way.

He really wasn't surprised that Naruto would be so late to pick him up. He couldn't expect anything more from someone like that. Loud, boisterous, incredibly stupid, half witted—the list went on.

He knew exactly why his mother left him with Naruto. It was a form of torture-another one of her means to make his life miserable like she always did. Seichi puffed in the back of the seat and scowled. He really did hope he never had to see his mother again.

Almost as much as he hoped he would see his father again.

Seichi shook his head and sighed. He was wasting time, brooding like this. It would be more productive if he tried to finish some homework on the way to the building.

The ride was long enough for Seichi to complete his English homework-reading for fifty minutes, haha. He laughed at his own inside joke and looked about when the chauffeur parked the car. He saw the familiar building in front of him and sighed. Home Shitty Home, he thought to himself while he gathered his belongings to leave the vehicle.

"Have a good day, sir." said the chauffeur pleasantly.

Seichi didn't respond. He only stepped out of the vehicle and hoisted his bag over his shoulders. He didn't even bother closing the door, seeing as any good chauffeur would have _opened_ the door for him before he made an attempt to step out. Seichi was giving the man a chance to fulfill his duty.

With his large bag over his shoulders, Seichi made his way towards the apartment building. Someone opened the entrance door for him and saved him the trouble of reaching for it himself. He mumbled a thank you and walked towards the elevator. He would've taken the stairs, seeing as it was only the fifth floor, but his bag was just too heavy.

The elevator came in a few minutes. He wasn't the only one who got on, which made him feel a bit safer. The elevators looked so damaged that he couldn't help but think one could get stuck easily. He pressed the _five_ button and waited, along with the other people on the elevator, for their stop to come.

He was the one to get off first. Someone muttered have a nice day, but he ignored them. As Seichi began to walk down the hallway towards the apartment he began to realize how much dirtier the place was compared to this morning. New graffiti marks were in place where none were before, all the doors he passed were scratched and messed up, the off-white walls, were now on the verge of yellow—How disgusting could this place get?

Seichi wrinkled his nose in distaste and sighed when he finally reached apartment 5F.

Then he paused.

Keys.

He didn't have any keys. Seichi sucked his teeth and began to knock loudly on the stupid door. He really hoped the douche bag had only slept in, because if he had to freaking _wait_ for him to come home in this dark, dirty, _infested_ hallway, he would—

_Cri-chink!  
_  
Seichi sighed. Thank goodness the idiot...was...

Seichi blinked.

...home?

The raven haired boy took in a shaky breath when he looked up to see, not the unruly blonde hair, the blue eyes, and idiot face of Naruto, but red hair, a face as pale as an unpainted canvas, and the eyes of a monster.

* * *

"Seichi!"

Naruto burst into the apartment with his heart racing.

He had freaking _crashed_ Sakura's car. _Crashed _it. And it was all because Kiba told him that he...that he...-

Oh _gods_, he couldn't even wrap his head around it yet—!

"_Seichi_!"

And when he'd finally arrived to Seichi's school, an _hour_ after dismissal, the woman, he forgot her name, who'd given him a hard time had told him that Seichi had been given a personal _escort_ service home.

Naruto wanted to _scream_. A personal _escort_ service? What the hell _was_ that? If a kid's parent is late, you don't give them a freaking _escort_ service! How did that even _sound_? An _escort_ service? The kids were seven year old _children_ not _fifty_ year old men.

With another huff of breath Naruto stomped into the bedroom. "Seichi!" he called again.

And now, he had to worry about the kid not even being at _home_—

_Damn it,_ he hadn't even given Seichi _keys_—

"_Seichi_!"

"_What_?"

Naruto started. "Seichi?" The shout came from the bathroom. The blonde sighed and tore it open. "Seichi, you—"

"Aaaahh!"

"Aaaarrggh!" Naruto screamed shielding his eyes and nose. "Oh my god—" he said backing away. "Y-you could _warn_ a guy!"

Seichi glared at him. "I shouted from the _bathroom_. How much more warning do you want?" Seichi said, pulling his pants up to cover the sides of his bum.

"You could have _told_ me you were taking a crap." Naruto said with his eyes rolling to the back of his head from the smell. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He closed the door.

He leaned against the closed door and sighed. "How the hell did you get in the apartment?" he mumbled against it.

"I went to Iruka's apartment." the boy's voice was muffled because of the door in the way. "He came down and opened the door for me."

Naruto nodded his head. "Oh." He said before sighing in relief. So he pretty much had gotten riled up over nothing. He stayed silent for a while, then he sighed again. "Seichi, I'm sorry..." he said, banging his head lightly on the door. "It's just that...so much happened today and I just...I didn't plan my time right and..."

"It's no big deal." came the muffled voice of the boy.

Naruto smiled against the door. "No big deal, huh...I guess not, seeing how you're so freaking smart and all...I don't even remember telling you the address."

There was silence on the other end for a while. Then Seichi spoke again, in a timid voice. "I-I actually made a little mistake."

Naruto blinked. "A mistake? How so?"

Another long pause. "I...I went into the wrong building."

…

…...

_Breathe in, Naruto_.

The blonde closed his eyes and took in a shallow breath. "What building?" he asked slowly, and as calmly as he could.

More silence...

…

…..

Then—

"The building across the street."

Naruto let out a breath so shaky that the strength it took him to let it out made him slide slowly to the floor. "A-and did y-you k-knock?"

"Yes. Loudly"

Naruto shut his eyes. Time was moving in slow motion now. It was as if his heart was beating with such an intense speed, that it wasn't beating at all. He could hear the labored pulses thick in his ears, like a wet towel banging against a blackboard, over and over again. It took a while for him to finally ask the next question. "W-which one was he?" he almost whispered, then he shook his head, because that wasn't the question he _should_ be asking. "Did he hurt you? Are you alright?"

The boy didn't respond for long moments, but Naruto didn't rush him. Couldn't rush him. He was afraid of the answer.

"Naruto..." Seichi said finally, and the blonde felt the door open behind him. He leaned forward so Seichi could step out. Even the whiff of post-excretion and gas couldn't distract him from the heavy feeling of impending doom clouding his stomach.

"Naruto." Seichi said again, stepping in front of the blonde. Naruto didn't look at him. Seichi was speaking in that tone again, as if he was trying to soothe the blonde, trying to make him calm down. "Naruto," he said, for the third time.

"Just tell me." Naruto said softly, still not urgent.

Seichi made a small twitching movement with his hands, and said, in a small, unsure voice, "Why are you so scared of this guy?"

Naruto looked up from his pathetic position on the floor. "What do you mean 'why am I so scared of him'? I'm not scared. O-only concerned for your safety."

Seichi only looked at him. "Then why are you shaking like that?"

Naruto looked down at his hands. They were trembling violently. Naruto hissed and folded them together. "Forget about that, Seichi. Just tell me if he hurt you or not."

Seichi shrugged. "I'm here aren't I?"

Naruto shook his head and got on both knees so he was about Seichi's height. Then he seized his shoulders. "Seichi," he started slowly. "Tell me exactly what he did. Did he open the door? Did you see his face?"

Seichi moved his head to the side and made a face. "Yeah, he opened the door-"

"And then what?"

"And then _nothing_." the boy said impatiently. "He just looked at me, and then closed the door again..." Seichi tried to pull away from Naruto, but the blonde held him still. When the boy looked at Naruto, he saw his blue eyes narrowed dangerously at him.

"And what did he look like?" he asked slowly.

Seichi frowned. "I-I didn't see his face. The hallways were dark...but he had red hair, a-a-and his eyes. They were..." Seichi looked to the side as if to trail off, but looked back at Naruto a second later. "Big."

Naruto frowned at him. "Big?"

Seichi nodded at him. "Yeah. Like Big Bad Wolf big." he said with a shrug of his shoulders and a nervous look to the side.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at him. "Seichi..."he started lightly. "What are you talk-"

"Listen," Seichi half shouted, pulling himself away from Naruto roughly. "I have a lot of homework to do."

"Seichi-"

"Oh, and your toilet doesn't flush, so-"

"_Seichi_-"

"Just _drop _it, okay!" Seichi hissed at him. "Nothing happened, alright? He closed the door in my face, and I came here. Why are you making such a big _deal _out of it?" The raven haired boy glared at Naruto for a few heated moments before he spun around to go into the living room.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak. Then he closed it again. He stared at the space where Seichi used to be in disbelief. Then he inclined his head to the living room, where he could see the Sasuke's son looking through his bag with a harassed look on his face. At one point, Naruto saw a flash of a book, "Grimm's Fairy Tales: Little Red Riding Hood". For the first time in the few weeks he'd been living in his new apartment, Naruto finally had something he was sure of.

Seichi was hiding something.

* * *

End of Chapter

**Authors Notes**

I give you permission to kill me for taking so long to update T_T. This chapter, for some reason, was really hard to write. or rather it was hard to come up with _ideas _for it. Once I had the idea, the story just flowed, but all the same-I took _months_ to update this! I'm sorry ! Forgive me?

**Story Notes**

**10,300 Words!**

But at least it looks like we're finally getting somewhere! It's so exciting. I think I've finally pretty much got the outline of this story down. I don't know how many chapters it will be. It all depends. How long are you guys willing to read this? I think the maximum number of chapters this could be is twenty, since each chapter is always so long.

But anyway, story questions that you might want to take a shot at in your reviews:

**1. What did Kiba tell Naruto?**

**2. What's Sakura up to? Why did she ask Ino of all people to watch the house?  
**

**3. What is Seichi hiding?**

I hope you enjoyed reading! =] Until next time!  
Oh, and please review! They make me feel so goo0d! _Happy Thanksgiving_!

Oh yeah, and stay tuned for **Oblivion**. It'll come _Before_ Christmas, I promise, haha.


	8. It Starts Now

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Eight: _It Starts Now_

* * *

Naruto stared at his reflection for a long time.

He was…at a _loss_.

It had been a week—an entire _week_— and nothing had happened. _Nothing_. He had been so used to crazy things happening that a normal week was…strange. So strange in fact, that even he and Sasuke's brat had been getting along. Sort of—not really—but enough that Naruto didn't feel like strangling him every few minutes.

Naruto turned his cheek to the side and examined the small cut he got there from falling into the tub yesterday. He shook his head and cursed. In all honesty, he welcomed that accident; It put a dent in the odd _normal_-ness he was facing. It wasn't that Naruto didn't like normal. It just made him paranoid. He was waiting for something to pop out and stab him from every corner. He didn't like that feeling. He just wished that something would happen that would make him accept the calm, and make him not have to worry about things anymore.

But.

How was he supposed to do that with what he knew? Or at least, what he _thought_ he knew. There was something very strange going on in the apartment across from his own, he could tell that much, but he didn't know for sure what it was. There were strange facts leading to strange possible outcomes and it irked the hell out of the blonde. He had to tell someone about what he knew, right? Even if he did get laughed at, even if it was all a mistake and even if he was going to make a fool of himself and _possibly_ get the person living across from him into unnecessary trouble, he had to tell someone, right? He had to. It would be the right thing to do.

But how was he going to go about doing that? The police were a good start, but if they were anything like what Neji was, they'd laugh, take his information and send him on his way. And if he told Kakashi…well, he just wasn't going to tell Kakashi. He didn't trust that man yet. Iruka? No. Naruto didn't want to dim the happy glow that seemed to pulse out the man whenever he saw him.

Naruto shook his head and his reflection mimicked his movements. There was a small crack at the top of it now, right at the edge. Seichi, the rebel that he was, closed the cabinet a little too harshly, and the glass broke. Naruto fingered the crack for a moment before going back to looking at his reflection. He found it strange that he was doing that. Looking at his reflection. He used to do it when he was younger after his grandmother beat him for something he felt he didn't deserve to get beaten for. He would go into the bathroom with a tear stricken face and think about ways to kill her in front of the mirror. After a while he would stop crying and laugh to himself.

Hmm. Now that Naruto thought about, he used to be a pretty weird kid.

Naruto shook his head. This wasn't helping him get anywhere. He had to figure something out. He didn't know what it was, but he had to figure it out.

Naruto sighed and opened the cabinet, forcing his reflection away. He took out his tooth brush and the toothpaste. He was brushing his teeth only now, because Seichi had complained that if they didn't leave _right_ away, he would be late for school, and since they didn't have a car, they had to leave even _earlier_ to take the two buses before finally reaching his school, to which they arrived thirty minutes _early_. Naruto frowned at the memory. He understood the boy's need to be prompt, or beat whoever it was he wanted to beat at whatever race, but to force a grown man out of his own apartment at five in the morning without a shower just wasn't—

Naruto paused in his thoughts when he tried to squeeze toothpaste out of its packet. He sighed gustily and threw it away when none would come out. How could a little boy use up so much in a week? Naruto never had a packet last less than a month.

When Naruto threw the packet away, he stepped out of the bathroom. He stepped over the pile of his and Seichi's clothes—he would have to find a laundry mat somewhere—and walked into his room. He didn't waste time walking to his window. He was still afraid of what he might see, but he wasn't going to let his fear drive him to a suspenseful encounter again.

Just like yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before _that_, there was no one in sight. It was as if the person living across the street knew that Naruto was suspicious and decided to lay low for a while. Of course that would be impossible since…well…Naruto didn't know of it was impossible, but he hoped it was, because a criminal keeping it low because of a potential snitch, meant a criminal planning a way to _kill_ the snitch.

Not that Naruto was a snitch. More like…a teller.

Naruto fingered a space on the window before pulling away. Mr. Pie wasn't coming out. Not today, he realized. Naruto thought of how he should feel about that. A part of him wanted to go up to Kakashi and Iruka, tell them everything, so they could either deal with it, or help him get this over with, but he wasn't sure it would be a good idea. All that left was the police, right? And so what if some of them were the same way Neji was? Even if they doubted him, they would still have to investigate because finding Gaara meant finding a missing officer.

Naruto frowned as he walked into his kitchen. He didn't eat breakfast this morning, and he didn't think he was going to. He had to save food to feed the brat after school anyway.

Naruto let out a gusty sigh. Today was Thursday. He was supposed to give the brat back to Sakura tomorrow, but she hadn't answered any of his calls. That's why he was getting ready in the first place. He was going to go to Sakura's house and find out from Ino what the hell was going on. He was hoping that Sakura would be there as well, but he doubted she would be.

Naruto bent over his pile of dirty clothes to find an outfit that didn't stink too much. He found a simple pair of blue jeans and gray T-Shirt. He went into the living room to find the light jacket he'd thrown against the window sill, and searched for his keys. When he found them, he did a once over at his apartment, nodded, and unlocked the door to step outside.

He knew he'd left early enough to be able to pick Seichi up from school on time, but he didn't waste time speeding down the stairs to exit the building and catch the bus.

He had to pause though, when he saw building 1313, the one across from his own, standing grimly in its mysterious glory. Naruto felt a small shiver travel up his spine. How could have Seichi accidently walked into it? It was so obviously different from Naruto's. The air was different. The _feel_ was different.

Naruto shook his head, tearing his head away from the building. He saw the bus he needed to take coming up from behind him, and ran to catch it.

* * *

Naruto didn't miss his stop this time. The timid little bus stopped two small blocks from Sakura's home, and he stepped out quickly, only pausing to nod at the bus driver. He walked with fast steps towards the house, already leaning his head to the side to see if there were any suspicious cars in the driveway. When he saw none, he sighed and walked a little faster towards the house.

He was in front of the door in less than a minute and he knocked timidly at first, then loudly when he realized that Ino was probably the only one in. He was in the front porch for up to four minutes before a shout came from the inside, too muffled for the blonde to make out. A few seconds after the shout, there as a chorus of stomps before the door clicked and flew open.

Naruto frowned at Ino. Her hair was all over the place, her eyes were bright red, and she was wearing nothing but a night shirt that barely covered her crotch.

"Did Sakura come by here?" he asked quickly, getting right to the point.

Ino up glared at him. "Do you know what _time_ it is?" she asked hoarsely.

Naruto waved his wrist around. "Kinda short on watches where I'm from." He said rolling his eyes. "So no. Now answer the question."

Ino continued to glare at the blonde for a long time, before she scoffed. "Who wants to know?"

Naruto smacked his cheek with one of his hands in exasperation. "What do you mean who wants to know? Who's _asking_?"

Ino only crossed her arms over her chest.

Naruto growled and did the same. "I want to know, Ino."

The blonde woman eyes him for a moment longer before she shut her eyes, sighed, and leaned against the door frame. "She usually comes by at night—"

Before she could finish, Naruto was grabbing her shoulders and leaning into her face. "Did she say where she was going, where she went, when she'll come back!" he said it so quickly that he doubted the female blonde understood him.

Ino looked up at Naruto with wide eyes before she rolled her eyes. "I didn't _see_ her. Idiot." she said, trying to pull away. "But I know she came by."

Naruto let his hands go slack against her arms. "What?"

Ino shook her head and sighed. "I went to bed one night, leaving this place a mess, and when I came back downstairs the next morning things were missing. Shit was rearranged. The pillows were back on the couch. So I know she came by."

Naruto stared at her incredulously. "And you didn't _do_ anything about it? Call her? Try to see where she _went_?"

Ino waved a lazy hand in Naruto's face. "I don't know what the hell you want from me, Naruto. If Sakura wants to sneak in and out of her house, it's her own business."

Naruto put his face in his hands. "I don't understand how you can just accept to watch over someone's house and not ask any _questions_." He said incredulously. When he looked up again, he grabbed Ino's shoulders once more. "Is there anything else you can tell me? Did she leave anything? A _message_?"

Ino pushed the blonde away from her and stepped further into the house. "I don't think I would keep something like that to myself, Naruto." She said quietly. "Besides, why do you care so much? Pinky's probably looking for that husband of his, wherever the hell he's escaped to."

Naruto blinked. What?

"I can't blame the guy. I would run away too if I woke up one morning and I realized I was married to billboard-brow."

"Wait." Naruto said seriously. "What did you say? Sakura's looking for…Sasuke?"

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Why else would she be gone for so long?" she laughed then, and shook his head. "Although I probably wouldn't have figured it out if it wasn't for Shika."

"Shika?"

"Yeah. That lazy-ass. He comes here sometimes too. Looking for things. Clues, he says. But I know he just comes to see _me_."

Naruto blinked. He remembered the detective that was there the last time he was here. Nara Shika-something or other. But he couldn't really pay full attention to that when his heart was too busy trying to swim out the pool of his intestines. Sakura was looking for Sasuke. But…

"Why did Nara tell you this?"

"Who?"

"Nara." Naruto shook his head. "_Shika_. The detective."

Ino smirked and shrugged. "Dunno. People say a lot of things when they're drunk and lying next to a beautiful woman."

Naruto grimaced and shook his head. "Damn it, Ino." He growled. "You're no help at all."

"That's not what the men I've brought here say." She replied without hesitation.

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them again when a thought came to him, "Didn't Nara ask about Sakura? He should know where she is since—"

"Nope." Ino said examining her nails. "I didn't tell Shika anything about Sakura. He does ask sometimes, though…"

Naruto looked at her with wide eyes. "What are you saying? You didn't tell the _detective_ that Sakura comes over during the night time?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Look. I like Shika. The last time I told Sakura about a guy I liked, she married him. So I'll keep a detail like that to myself, thanks."

Naruto stared at the woman for a long time before he shook his head slowly. "What is wrong with you?" He whispered. It was as if Ino had no sense of priority. Or maybe just no sense at all. "It's illegal to lie to a city official, like that." was the only thing he could say.

Ino shrugged. "It wasn't a _lie_, and I wasn't under oath. Besides, I doubt _city officials_ are supposed to sleep with random women while on the job either."

Naruto blinked at her and put one hand to his face. "I don't understand you, Ino." He said.

The woman shrugged again. "I don't want you to understand me." She said quietly.

Naruto only shook his head and took a step back. "Thanks for nothing." He said, easing out of the porch.

Ino tilted her head and folded her arms. "Hold on." She said, following after him. "Why are you so worried anyway? I always knew you were in love with the broad, but Sakura's married, Naruto. You being all protective won't change that."

Naruto glared at her. "If you must know, _Ino_, I'm taking care of her son and I was supposed to give him back tomorrow. I see now that that's not happening."

Ino's eyes widen for a moment before, "Sakura had a son?"

Naruto stared at her. "How do you not know this?" he asked her.

Ino smiled bitterly. "I told you before. Sakura and I haven't spoken in years."

"And you don't ask questions when she contacts you again? To watch over her house, no less?"

Ino smiled at the blonde. "Free housing." She replied.

Naruto looked at her for a few moments more, before shaking his head and turning his back to her.

"Wait!" Ino shouted as he was about to turn the corner.

Naruto turned to glare at her, but paused when she saw the look on her face.

"You know what I said about Sakura coming by at night?"

Naruto turned to fully face her and nodded his head.

Ino seemed to hesitate, before she continued. "Well. She takes things."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean she takes things?"

Ino put a string of hair behind her ear. "I mean she takes things. Clothes. Other things." She said quickly. She seemed to hesitate again, and she looked at Naruto with bright eyes. "But sometimes…sometimes, she doesn't take anything."

Naruto stared at the blonde woman for a long time before he gestured around him. "Well? I don't understand what you're saying Ino."

Ino sighed exasperatedly and shut her eyes. "What I'm saying is," she said loudly, "is that when she doesn't take things…I don't think it was her that was in the house…"

Naruto only blinked at her.

"Listen," Ino started softly, "I don't know what it is about this place…but at night…I hear sounds. I know Sakura comes in, because she makes little noises. _Moving_ noises. But this other sound…it's silent…like…a _presence_, you know?"

Naruto stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about, Ino." He asked emotionlessly.

Ino looked away with her arms crossed and shrugged. "It's like it's not just Sakura who comes into this house, is all." She said lightly. "Like someone's watching me all the time."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, and took a small step towards her. "Like a prowler?"

Ino scoffed. "I welcome prowlers. They keep the night exciting. Especially when they realize I'm just as willing as they are." She laughed a bit and shook her head, before suddenly turning solemn again. "But I know what prowlers feel like. The other presence…it's something else entirely."

Naruto blinked at her for long moments. "I think you've been in that house alone way too long."

Ino laughed. "Alone? I think not. Shika comes over all the time. Now if only I could get him to stay during nights too…" she drifted off and seemed to be thinking to herself.

Naruto sighed and turned to leave the driveway. He knew he wasn't going to get any answers from her.

* * *

It was early. Naruto had hoped the trip to Sakura's would provide with some good answers, and take at least a few hours, but that all went down the drain. Now he was on the bus again, six hours before he had to pick up Seichi. Naruto supposed he would go home. Wander around the streets, maybe, so he could find himself a good laundry mat, but he doubted he would be alert enough to do that.

Sakura was looking for Sasuke.

Naruto put his face in his hands again. What was she _thinking_? He sighed gustily and banged the side of his chair. Didn't she know how dangerous that was? Naruto knew Sakura had a computer; she must have looked up all about the guy Sasuke was after. If Sakura found Sasuke who was looking for Gaara, and if Sasuke found Gaara, then that would mean that she found Gaara as well and that they were both probably going to die. Naruto sucked in a breath and leaned back against his chair again.

Damn it, he thought. Everything was just so…messed up. He would have gladly ignored most of the case, and leave it in the hands of the police but now that _Sakura_ was involved.

Then again. Ino was the one who told him this…she said that she heard it from that detective person. She could always be lying—trying to rile Naruto up or something. But still, how would Ino know about Sasuke being missing in the first place?

Naruto shook his head and looked out the window. The bus was moving to an area he used to know well—Cortelyou District. It was sort of a poor district, where a lot of homeless people ran around, and everyone knew at least one guy who'd been shot. Kiba lived here.

Naruto blinked. He looked at the clock on the bus. Six hours until he had o pick up Seichi. And it was much faster to get to Seichi's school from here than it was from his house. Naruto made up his mind. He was going to crash by Kiba's house.

If he was going to make it anywhere near Kiba's house he was going to have to get off at the next stop and take a long walk towards Tekonkin Street before he reached Kiba's house.

When he got off the bus, the air surprised him by being cold. He rubbed his arms together and walked just as fast as he did to get to Sakura's porch. At this speed however, he was going to be lucky if he made it to Kiba's house in less than twenty minutes.

He made it to Kiba's house in ten. The wind had picked up so quickly that Naruto had no choice but to run there. His jacket was so flimsy, and looking at the sky above, he could tell that it was going to rain soon. It was such a shame, considering he didn't have an umbrella or a car, and he had to pick up the brat despite all that.

Kiba lived in a duplex meant for two families. His sister and her family lived upstairs, while Kiba lived downstairs in the basement with his dog. The dog-lover told Naruto he didn't have to ever knock when he came over, but Naruto was feeling courteous today. He knocked twice. Sharp and loud. If Kiba didn't get it, then his older sister would.

His sister got it. She opened the door quickly, and looked at the blonde with wide eyes before she took a small step back, allowing the blonde in "Naruto," she said lightly. "I haven't seen you around here in a while."

Naruto shrugged timidly. It was always hard talking to Kiba's older sister. He didn't think there was an inch on her body that wasn't covered with either tattoos or piercings. She wasn't especially pretty, but she had a cool and steady air about her. She was always calm, unlike her brother. Even calmer, after she had her first child.

"Kiba's downstairs." She said. "He's probably still sleeping though. He came home pretty late from work last night."

Naruto was about to say that Kiba didn't work on Wednesday nights, but decided to keep his mouth shut. He nodded to Kiba's sister and headed down stairs, where Kiba's small space was. It was a single large room, with a mattress lying on the floor, a small TV with various game stations and video games lying around it, a fridge in the corner, and a small bathroom at the end. It was cold, as it usually was in Kiba's house, so Naruto wasn't at all surprised to not see Kiba, but a mound of sheets piled on top of each other on a large dark mattress.

"Kiba." Naruto started.

The dog-boy didn't stir. His dog, a white fat, Chihuahua (or something; Naruto never asked) barked from the other side of the room. Naruto nodded to it, and the dog barked again, coming towards Naruto with its short stubby legs. Naruto petted it when it was close enough, bending over to do so. The canine closed its eyes in pleasure and began to purr—or grumble. Whatever it was that dogs did when they felt good.

He didn't pet the dog for more than a minute when the sheets on the mattress began to shift, and a loud groan emitted from underneath them.

"Akamaruuu…" Kiba moaned from under the sheets. There was more movement, and Naruto could see the dog-lover trying to pull them off his head. When he finally did, his eyes widened when he saw the blonde. "Naruto?" he said, scrambling up on the bed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Naruto gave the brunette a small salute before he shrugged his shoulders. "I just felt like stopping by." He said with a small smile. "How've you been?"

Kiba looked at the blonde with raised eyebrows for a while longer before he stood up from the bed slowly. "I've been fine, dude. How have _you_ been? I haven't spoken to you since…" he looked away with a small tint in his cheeks. He walked towards his tiny fridge.

Naruto stood up from petting Kiba's dog and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you know. I guess I've been good. Still taking care of the brat though."

Kiba looked up at him from the fridge where he was taking out a can of soda. "Still?" he said, opening it. "When is Sakura picking him up?"

Naruto sighed. "I have no idea. I was supposed to give him back tomorrow but Sakura…" he paused, wondering if he should involve Kiba in all of this. "She…took a little impromptu trip."

Kiba looked at Naruto with surprise. "Really? With her husband?"

Naruto gulped a bit before shrugging his shoulders. "I suppose. I…I can't get a hold of Sasuke either."

Kiba nodded his head absentmindedly before closing the fridge. He walked up to Naruto with his long sweat pants and nothing else. "I didn't think Sakura was the kind to just…go on a trip without telling anyone. She didn't tell you she was leaving?"

Naruto shook his head.

Kiba nodded his head again. "Sometimes, when Kiva and her husband are fighting, they leave their kid with me and go for a long trip."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Your sister? Why?"

Kiba shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. But maybe Sakura and Sasuke are having some kind of fight and don't want their kid home to see it?"

Naruto nodded his head with a small smile, but on the inside he was dying. _If only that were true_…

"So you really just came here to just crash?" Kiba said, plopping onto his bed again. His dog ran over to him excitedly.

Naruto nodded his head. "I have to pick up Sakura's kid later. I didn't really want to go all the way home and have to leave again."

Kiba nodded his head in understanding. He looked around his room and frowned. "Sorry for the mess." He said absentmindedly. "I…haven't really been at home lately."

Naruto frowned. "The boss giving you trouble at work?"

Kiba laughed. "Haha, yeah, I guess. Since you left he's been forcing the newbies to do your shift."

"That's good isn't it?" Naruto said. "My job pays more."

Kiba laughed and shook his head. "Nah, he makes them do your job on top of their job with no extra pay."

"Are you _serious_?"

Kiba nodded his head with a smile still on his face. "Yeah."

"Hmm." Naruto didn't really have anything else to say. He was surprised by how terribly awkward he felt. Kiba was his best friend for Pete's sake. Why did he feel like he was talking to a stranger? Naruto sighed. It was probably because they hadn't seen each other in so long, and because he'd had so many things on his mind lately…

"Where were you before you came here?" Kiba asked suddenly.

Naruto blinked. "Oh. I, uh, I went to Sakura's house."

"Did you speak to her?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. She wasn't there. Ah…Ino was."

Kiba paused in his drinking to look at Naruto. "_Ino_? What was she doing in Sakura's house? I thought they hated each other."

Naruto nodded his head. "Me too, but Sakura's been acting weird lately."

Kiba didn't seem to hear him. "Man… Ino Yamanaka? I haven't seen her since…_high school_."

Naruto looked at Kiba for a moment. "You mean Sakura's wedding." He said.

Kiba looked up in inquiry. "What?"

Naruto laughed lightly. "The last time you saw Ino was at Sakura's wedding." He repeated.

Kiba looked away in thought. "Was she? I don't really remem—"

"You _slept_ with her." Naruto added incredulously. How could Kiba forget that?

Kiba choked a bit on the soda he was drinking and looked up at Naruto. "What? Why did I do that?"

"You were drunk. _She_ was drunk. That's how it usually works doesn't it? I had to pick you up from her house in the morning."

Kiba looked up at Naruto incredulously. "Why don't I remember this?" Then he broke into a laugh. "Wow. I was something else back then."

Naruto nodded his head. "We all were."

Kiba shook his head. "No." he said. "Not you."

Naruto looked up at him, bemused.

Kiba smiled at him. "You're still the same." He said. He looked at the ground and shook his head. "A lot of people have changed, Naruto. You have no idea. But you? You're still…_bright_. Happy all the time. An idiot." He added with a laugh.

Naruto shook his head, but was smiling none-the-less. "Your wrong, Kiba." He said quietly. "I've changed too. I'm still _incredibly_ handsome, yes, but I have changed."

Kiba laughed and shook his head. "Whatever you say, man. You're still on the list." He sighed and put the can down.

"What list?"

Kiba smiled up at him. "The list of people who haven't changed. The one we started in middle school."

Naruto felt his eyes dim. Life was a lot simpler for most people back then. But not for him. What with Sasuke leaving, and Sakura begging him to bring him back…"Yeah," he said anyway. It struck him how similar that time was to this time. Only now Sakura seemed to missing too, and there was probably nothing he could do about it. Naruto sighed quietly in dismay and shook his head.

Kiba must have sensed his mood, because he didn't speak for a long time. When he did speak, what might have been several minutes later, he said "You and Shino."

Naruto looked at him. "What?"

Kiba smiled at him, shrugging his shoulders and looking to the side. "You two are the only ones who've stayed the same."

Naruto's eyes widened at the mention of Shino's name. He tried to smile at Kiba. "Uh…I remember you telling me that Shino did change."

Kiba's eyes were solemn for a moment, before he shook his head and smiled. "That…was what I _thought_. But I was …wrong. Shino had always…" he trailed off and looked at the ground.

Naruto gulped and fiddled with his hands. The silence was awkward and…impending. Both of them knew what the other was thinking.

"So…" Kiba started after a while. "Aren't you going to ask how it happened?"

Naruto blinked. "How what happened?"

Kiba chuckled before looking at the ground again. "Me and Shino."

Naruto's eyes widened again, before he looked away. A clear image of the car he wrecked flashed in his mind and he closed his eyes at the memory. Why did Kiba choose _that_ moment to tell him something like that? "I, uh…if you want."

Kiba narrowed his eyes at the blonde. "Naruto…if it makes you _uncomfortable_…"

Naruto turned to his friend quickly. "No!" he started quickly. "It's…I just…it was a surprise is all. You just seemed so…" Naruto looked for the words. "For a while, I thought you would rather _die_ than even _see_ Shino." The time Kiba punched the man flashed through his mind.

A pained expression came over Kiba's face. "I…that was a mistake."

Naruto nodded his head slowly. "So then…what changed?"

Kiba smiled softly. "I listened to him." He said.

Naruto waited for Kiba to say more. When he didn't, he spoke. "That's it? You _listened_? I don't see how that could lead to you having _sex_ with Shino." Naruto was glad his voice didn't break when he finally said it aloud.

Kiba laughed at him. "I was never the one to hesitate to sleep with anyone, if I remember correctly." He said, shaking his head. "I mean, I slept with _Ino_ for Pete's sake."

Naruto had to smile at that. "There are obvious differences between what happened with her and what's happening with you and _him_." He said lightly.

They were silent for some time after that, the silence no longer awkward.

Finally, Naruto spoke again. "So…you two are…an item?"

Kiba shrugged his shoulders and looked at the side with distant eyes. "I don't really know what we are." He sighed and leaned back into his bed. "All I know is that I like him, and that no one has ever made me feel like he does."

Naruto laughed. "Of course no one has. Only a man can do what he did to you." Then Naruto blinked. "U-unless it was _you_ who…" he trailed off, blanching. The technicality of that kind of sex was making him uncomfortable.

Kiba looked up at Naruto with a raised eyebrow. "I hope you don't think that Shino and I went _all the way_, Naruto." He said seriously.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You said you and Shino had sex. Isn't having sex going all the way?" he asked.

Kiba shook his head, but smiled anyway. "I didn't mean…" he seemed at a loss for words. "I meant we…we were _close_…but…" his eyes dimmed a bit. "…he stopped before we..." he trailed off.

Naruto's mouth twitched. Now the conversation was getting uncomfortable again. "Oh."

Kiba sighed. "I'm not a slut, Naruto. I wouldn't go all the way on the first night."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Ino." was all he had to say, before Kiba threw a pillow at him with a laugh.

"I don't think _I _was the slut in that situation."

Naruto threw the pillow back at him. "Men can be sluts too Kiba." He said with a small laugh. "You're the kind with a type."

Kiba raised an eyebrow, ready to throw the pillow back when Naruto said that last part. "Type? What are you talking about."

Naruto grinned at him. "I_no_. Shi_no_. Face it Kiba, you've got a thing for the No's."

Kiba blinked at the blonde a few moments before he burst out laughing. "That doesn't even make any _sense_! Besides, it would be more impressive if you had at least three names."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets. He started to walk around Kiba's room, enjoying the simplicity of it. All the essentials for a man. It was probably a better place to live in than his own apartment, Naruto thought. He would have to share a kitchen with a family that lived above him, but that was better than having to worry about murderers who might or might not live in the window across from him.

When Naruto turned around, he saw Kiba at the fridge again, shoving things around to look for something. The blonde sighed. Should he tell Kiba about his problem? It would give him someone to talk to. Someone he could trust. Kiba would probably tell Shino too, now that they were…

Naruto blinked. He paused in the middle of the room and stared straight ahead. Now that he was actually thinking about it, it was so strange. Shino and Kiba. He blinked again. Iruka and Kakashi. Naruto laughed. Who would be next? Sakura and Ino? The blonde shook his head. As straight as Kiba was before all of this, Naruto wouldn't be surprised if he himself suddenly became…

Naruto stopped. What was he thinking? Silly things.

"When do you have to pick up the kid?" said Kiba, heading towards the stairs with what looked like a hot pocket.

Naruto looked at the time on the cable box on top of Kiba's T.V. "I have some time." He said. "I have to pick him up at five."

"And how long does it take for you to get there?"

Naruto shrugged. "From here? Maybe an hour and a half."

Kiba nodded his head. "We've got some time together then." He said. "Hold on while I go warm this up." He said holding up the hot pocket. "I would offer you one, but I know you only eat noodles for breakfast, dinner, and lunch, and I don't have any."

Naruto laughed at him. "You know me too well."

Kiba smiled at him and turned to go up the stairs, but before he could, he paused and turned to look at the blonde. "Hey, Naruto…" he started.

Naruto looked at him. "Yeah?"

Kiba hesitated for a moment, his smile faltering, "I…was afraid to tell you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Kiba chuckled lightly. "I was scared to death of telling you about…Shino and I…but Shino told me you would understand. He was the one who made me call you. But even if he did know, I still…want to thank you." He paused, and shook his head. "I'm still unsure about everything, about what he and I are, but it makes me feel good to know that you're still my friend, you know?"

Naruto blinked a few times before he felt a slow smile come to his lips. "Kiba," he said. '"You're my best friend." He said it like it was an obvious thing, so the dog-lover laughed.

"I am, aren't I?' he said lightly, before turning around to head up the stairs.

Naruto blinked after him. He chose that moment to decide to not tell Kiba about anything that was happening; the dog-lover already had so much to worry about.

It was better that he kept everything to himself.

* * *

"Promise to visit tomorrow?" said Kiba, leaning at the doorway of his house.

Naruto put a finger to his chin in thought. "I suppose I could." He said, lightly. "But don't you have work?"

Kiba shook his head. "I took the rest of the week off." He said.

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Really? The boss let you do that?"

Kiba shrugged his shoulders. "To tell you the truth, Naruto. I think the boss actually likes me. You? I think he hates you. I think the reason why he's so mean to everyone is because of the frustrations he has with you. When you finally do come back, I think he's gonna give you hell, man."

The blonde sighed gustily and ran a tired hand through his hair. "Yeah…I know." In truth he'd even considered quitting his job and looking for a new one, just to get away from his boss. But he realized that that was probably going to be risky, since he was living on his own now. With a step back and a shake of his head, Naruto waved again to Kiba. "I've gotta go pick up the brat now." He said.

"Tomorrow, then?" Kiba called out to the blonde.

Naruto nodded his head and turned to walk down the road to the bus stop. "Tomorrow."

The blonde only turned to look back when he heard the door to Kiba's place slam shut. Then he sighed, turned and went to take the long walk back to the bus station.

It would only be a few minutes before his stop arrived, and even then Naruto would have to walk another several blocks to get to the school. He'd fallen asleep, no surprise, but luckily woke up before he missed his stop. He actually got a chance to take in the sights while he was on the bus. When he was driving, he couldn't really look anywhere else but the road, except maybe when there were red lights, but on the bus, Naruto could take in the feeling of the school town. It sort of reminded him of Sakura's neighborhood, except with a lot more professional buildings and such. It was also pretty posh. He didn't know why every building needed a doorman, he didn't know why every doorman needed a dog, and he didn't know why one of the dogs had to be a huge off-white colored poodle.

But he supposed this was the kind of place people with money wanted to live in. Naruto wondered why Sakura didn't just come to live here where Seichi's school was so close. Their neighborhood was nice and suburban, but with the kind of money they seemed to both make, they would probably be more suited here, no?

Naruto was forced to leave his thoughts when he saw his stop ahead. He was lucky he was already so familiar with the public transit system. Otherwise he would have had a hard time when he lost the car….which he still had yet to hear from the auto-shop he sent it to. Which reminded him: with what _money_ was he going to pay the auto-shop? Naruto sighed into his hands. That meant another grueling conversation with his grandmother.

Naruto stood up grudgingly when his stop finally came. He nodded to the driver and stepped out without tripping over himself, which was quite a feat considering how terribly disorientated he felt at the moment. He took his time walking to Seichi's school; he was almost twenty minutes early, and if he learned anything this passed week, it was that Seichi's school finished at 5:00 on the dot. Not a moment sooner or later.

It wasn't that bad of a walk really. If anything, Naruto thought this was good exercise. He hadn't really been keeping up with any of that since he moved. The only reason why his belly wasn't hanging over his jeans yet was because he was too busy starving himself to have enough food for the brat. He wished he could exercise, and become built like Kiba was, but he just didn't have time anymore…

The thought of Kiba made Naruto sigh and shake his head. He still couldn't believe it. It was all too weird. Kiba and Shino. He was putting up a little bit of a front when he remained as calm as he was when he found out. The truth was he was totally freaked out by the whole thing. Kiba was just so…manly. He wasn't sure how being with another man would work out. He understood it with Iruka and Kakashi, because Iruka was just so…_fe_-manly. He didn't know how else to put it. He simply thought he could easily imagine Iruka in a frilly apron, cooking dinner for his husband, and catering to a few kids. No big deal. But Kiba? He couldn't see that at all. But oh well. He supposed every relationship was different.

The walk to Seichi's school seemed to last only a few minutes, even though it was at least a ten minute walk. Being lost in his thoughts made time pass so much faster, Naruto realized. He sighed when he saw the gates of the school ahead. He was walking on the same block as the school, so he could only see a small extension of the gate poking out from the side, and—

And two policemen leaning against it.

Naruto blinked. He wasn't sure at first, because he had to squint to see their uniforms from here, but as he walked closer and closer, he was sure of it. They were facing each other, and away from him. One was considerably larger than the other, and the other one (the one facing away from Naruto) was smoking a cigarette, if those whiffs of smoke were any indication.

Naruto found himself slowing down. He didn't have anything to be afraid of, not like he did when he was going to Sakura's house last week, but for some reason a familiar dreaded feeling was weighing him down, making his steps just a tad bit slower. He couldn't stop himself from getting closer and closer to the school, however, and if the policeman saw how uncomfortable he was, they would probably think he was hiding something. So, as hard it was, Naruto picked his head up, and tried to walk as confidentially as he could. He looked right at the policemen, hoping that the men wouldn't notice him.

No such luck.

The larger policeman, who was initially blocked by the smoking one, looked up and saw him when he was several yards away. From here he could see the large man squint, until he started, and pointed at the blonde. He said something to his partner, and said person turned around to face Naruto as well.

Naruto heart had hammered into his chest when the larger policeman pointed at him, but now it was in his throat when he got a good look at the thin one who turned around. He didn't think he would ever forget that long hair and those pale eyes since the first time he met him in Sakura's house, but to see them again…

"Naruto!"

Naruto stopped in his tracks. It was the larger man who'd called his name, and from here he could tell that it was the same one who accompanied the thin one—Neji, was it?—that day.

The blonde felt the sudden urge to hightail it out of there. He tried to remember if he'd done anything the pass few days. Gasp. Maybe they'd been following him around the entire time and had seen him slap Seichi across the face that one time…Okay those several times.

Naruto was right in front of the policemen now. He opted for a small smile. "Uh…H-hey?"

The first thing Neji did was glare, but the fat one pushed passed him and grinned nervously. "Do you remember us?" he asked.

Naruto nodded his head hesitantly. "You guys are from that time at Sakura's house…"

The fat one nodded his head. "Right. Chouji and Neji." He pulled back then, and looked solemnly at Naruto. "There's something we need to ask you, Naruto—"

"There's nothing we need to ask him." Neji soddenly said, pushing past Chouji to standing right in front the blonde. He grabbed a hold of both of Naruto's hands and glared at him with steel eyes. Before Naruto could blink, he was being spun around and pushed against the gate and strong metal cuffs were enclosed on his wrists.

"What the—!"

"Uzumaki Naruto, you are under arrest for the murder—"

"_Suspicion_ of murder—" Chouji felt the need to add in.

"—of Ino Yamanaka."

Naruto, with his face squished again the gate could only turn his head his head at an awkward angle and look at the policemen with disbelief. "What?" he shouted. But, wait, he had to come up with something more coherent then that, so he tried again. "WHAT?"

"Keep you voice down." Neji hissed, pulling him away from the gate. He seemed to be taking him somewhere.

"W-wait!" Naruto shouted helplessly, trying to pull away.

"Don't struggle, Naruto." Chouji said from his left. He seemed genuinely apologetic. "You'll only make this difficult."

"Make this difficult?" Naruto shouted, turning to face the fat man. He realized that Neji was indeed steering him towards a black car parked in the street. "I didn't _do_ anything!"

"We'll see about that once we've questioned you, brat." Neji said, squeezing his arm painfully.

Naruto winced and closed his eyes. He was arrested once—for defaming a few statues with spray paint. If he learned anything about that, it was that it really was best not to struggle. But that was for defaming a few statues. This was for…

Oh my God.

"Ino's _dead_?"

Neji squeezed his arm again and inclined his head towards Chouji so he could open the door to back seat. "I suggest you don't say anything until we've arrived at the station kid."

Naruto didn't hear him. Instead he turned to look at Chouji with wide eyes. His heart was in his mouth now. It was beating so hard it had moved along his esophagus. "How the hell did she die?" he asked, hysterically. All he could remember was seeing her today, while she was normal, _alive_ self. It scared him how the person he talked to could die on the same day.

"She didn't die." Chouji said solemnly. "She was murdered."

Naruto blinked and shook his head. He was about to say something else, when Neji apparently lost all his patience and shoved him inside the inconspicuous black car. "Wait!" Naruto shouted. The windows were shut, so he wasn't sure they could hear him. "What about Seichi? I have to pick him up!"

Chouji got into the front passenger seat and turned to face him. "What was that?"

"Seichi!" Naruto said again, exasperated. "We have to wait until—"

"The brat's already at the police station." Neji said, coming into the car.

There was glass separating the front seats from the back, and Naruto pressed his face against it. "What?"

"You think we're going to let a suspected murderer pick up the son of a missing police officer?" asked Neji somehow mixing disgust and incredulousness into his voice.

Naruto leaned back into his chair in disbelief. "Wh—" he paused then, and took a deep breath. "I don't understand." He triedto say calmly after several moments. The car was already moving by then. "How is Ino dead, why do you think I did it, how did you know I'd be here, why did—" his voice had risen towards the end to a shrill tone.

"All your questions will be answered at the station, damn it." Neji hissed, turning to look at him quickly, before facing the road again.

"Wait a minute! Aren't you suppose to read all my rights or tell me what the hell is going on before you take me—"

"Listen, Naruto." Said Chouji, exasperated. "We're being secretive for a reason. It's part of the boss's plan to figure you out—"

"You aren't supposed to _tell_ him the plan—" Neji interjected with another hiss.

"It'll work whether he knows it or not. Besides, it's almost obvious he didn't—"

"Stop _talking_, Chouji." Neji growled. He looked at Naruto from the rear view mirror then. "Listen to me, kid. All we want you to do right now is keep your mouth shut. Everything will make sense once we've arrived."

"And put on your seatbelt." Chouji added.

Naruto shook his head incredulously and leaned back into his chair. He was—

He was in shock. The car started moving abruptly and he was forced to lean further into his chair. Chouji had said to put his seat-belt but how the hell was he supposed to that when his hands were tied behind his back? In any situation he would have commented on it but—

But Ino was dead.

The thought sent a feeling through Naruto that he could only describe as a freezing wind whooshing around the base of his stomach and lifting up until it reached his head. It was...

It was just so unbelievable to him. He couldn't even—

Naruto gulped, and that same wind made it's way around his body, and now all Naruto had left that solid fear coursing through the marrow in his bones.

"I just don't..." he stared quietly. "_understand_..." he finished weakly. All he could think of was Ino's annoyed face, and her inappropriate clothes, and her caustic words, and her unbelievable logic—

How could she be dead?

Naruto didn't know how he looked but Chouji spoke through him from the rear view mirror with a careful tone, "Naruto... ?"

Naruto didn't answer. He wasn't even sure he heard the fat man speak. Instead he closed his eyes and leaned his head into his lap. It was an uncomfortable position, but the dread feeling moving through him overpowered the aches of his muscles.

Ino was dead. Dead, damn it. _Murdered_.

It was unfathomable. He couldn't believe it. If Ino could die just like that, then what is there to say about Kiba? Sakura? Seichi? _Sasuke_, who'd been missing for so long? If life could leave someone just like that, then...then no one was safe. And everyone was screwed. _He_ was screwed.

Damn it. Ino was _dead_.

"We're here, kid."

Naruto didn't move. He let his hang head until the door to his side opened and he was roughly pulled out by the long haired man.

"Finally showing everyone your true colors?" he whispered harshly into the blonde's ear.

Naruto didn't respond. He kept his head down; that terrible feeling still hung in his body. It was like he just found out his wife or best friend died, and all that was left of this feeling was the residue of the shock and pain.

He had no choice but to pick his head up when hands grabbed him from behind pushed him forward like a shield. "Walk." said Neji. Naruto picked his head up and saw a normal urban neighborhood. The buildings looked like public housing departments, brown and white and red. There were quite a number of people walking in the streets, as to be expected during rush hour, but it made Naruto nervous when a few stopped to stare at him being led roughly to the train station. One person shook their head in disgust. An old man the sign of the cross and saluted him. Naruto tried to smile, but he'd lost use of his mouth for some time now.

Neji, with Chouji right beside him, pushed him into a grey large building. In bright silver letters were HATAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT. Naruto felt his stomach come alive again, if only to vomit.

He was coming to realize his situation again. Screw Ino's death. What really mattered was that they said _he_ did it, and they were taking him to _jail_.

"W-wait." he started lightly, nervously. "I—"

"Shut it." Neji said, waiting for Chouji to open the double doors so he could push the blonde in.

When they were finally inside there was a huge rush of things. Naruto was pushed into a room with new police officers. They asked for his full name, took his picture, took his thumb prints and just about everything he'd seen done in the movies expect take his clothes and force him to wear an orange jumpsuit. When he left the small room, he was once again cuffed and moved into another room where there was one 5x5 table, and two small chairs opposite of each other. One average sized man sat in one of the chairs. Naruto was forced to sit on the other.

The blonde gasped when he saw the man's face. It was the Nara dude. His face was an absolute mess. It looked like the after images of someone who was distraught, or perhaps mourning internally. He didn't even look up at Naruto. He had his chin leaning against his fist, looking at the far side of the wall.

"Tell me your name." the man started quietly, in a dull voice, startling Naruto.

"U-Uzumaki Naruto."

The other man stayed quiet for a long time. He took a slow blink before he started speaking again. "Do you understand your situation?" he asked again, in a dull voice. It was like he was possessed; he looked so empty.

"N-no. Not really."

Shikamaru blinked hard then, and put his forehead to his palm. "Really? You don't remember...murdering anyone?"

Naruto leaned so fast in his chair, his chest collided harshly with the table. "I didn't do it! I swear to all that I know and love Ino was _alive_ when I—"

"There's no use," Shikamaru continued, not even the slightest bit rattled by the blonde's outburst. "We've already captured your accomplice…Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto jumped up in his seat. "_Accomplice_?" he shouted, outraged. "What are _saying_? What are you _talking_ about?"

"I'm talking about your accomplice." the man continued, but with his chin on both hands now. "So there's no use. He's already confessed."

Naruto sat there with his mouth opening and closing and shaking like a deranged sea creature out of water. "W-wha—"

"He's already told us your role in Ino's...untimely death. So confess."

"I'm not confessing to _JACK_." Naruto screamed. "I didn't do anything! I swear to you, I went to Ino's house and she was _alive_, and kicking, and happy, and everything else she ever was, I swear—" Naruto collapsed in his chair with something too close to be a sob. It was a sharp intake of breath and he could feel the backs of his eyes aching. "That accomplice, or whatever the hell you're talking about is lying. I swear, oh god, I swear, I swear, I didn't do anything to Ino. I didn't do _anything_ to her…" Naruto felt the dreaded tear sting the backs of his eyes then. He put his head down on the able to hide it and wipe it away, but then he remembered he was still cuffed behind his back, so he wiped his face with the table. "I swear…" he continued with a thick voice. But it was no use. The images of the blonde girl was coming back to him in torrents. And not just his memories of her today, but memories of her when she was young, and happy, and beautiful—damn it, Naruto would admit it now, she was beautiful. The blonde couldn't help the tired gasp of breath that escaped him then, and he couldn't deny now. It was a sob, and he was crying.

"Alright."

Naruto started. He didn't look up, because he'd made quite a mess of himself, and he didn't want anyone seeing the pool of snot coming out of his nose to stretch and appear when he lifted his head up.

"I believe you."

Naruto started again, and he couldn't help but pick his head up. He didn't even care about the snot that stretched from his table to his nose. The detective stared back at him with solemn eyes, not even one bit revolted by how pathetic Naruto looked. "What?" he asked lamely.

The detective sighed and closed his eyes. "I believe you. We all do." He pointed towards the large mirror on the wall beside the table,

Naruto looked and only saw his reflection, but he knew there was probably a team of policemen out there, watching him from the other side. "So…" he continued carefully. "Am I…free to go?"

For the first time a small smile came to the corner of Nara's mouth, but it disappeared just as soon as it appeared. "No." he said simply, then stood up. Alert, Naruto stood up too. The detective gave him one look before he shook his head. "You have to stay here." He said. And then he exited the room.

Naruto sat back down slowly. What the hell was going on?

Before he could dwell a bit more in his thoughts, the door opened again, and Naruto stiffened. He had to relax all over however, when instead of another policeman, a familiar face he never thought he'd be so happy to see came running towards him with tears in his eyes.

"Narutooo!" moaned Seichi as he ran to the blonde. He collided into him harshly while he sat on the chair and surrounded his small arms around the blonde. "Tell them the truth!" he yelled into Naruto's chest, damping it more then it already was. "Tell them what you told me." Seichi screamed again.

Naruto spluttered above him, moved that Sasuke's son would be so affectionate and at the same time disturbed. "Tell them what?" he asked carefully, but loudly enough that the boy could hear over his sobs.

"Tell them that daddy is on patrol! Tell them that daddy's only gone to protect me! Like you said! Tell them daddy can be back whenever he wants! Tell them daddy isn't missing!"

Naruto stilled. Oh. He looked up to the three policemen that followed Seichi into the room. One he didn't recognize, Nara, and Neji. "You…told him?"

Seichi leaned away from Naruto and looked at him with wide, distraught eyes. "What are you saying?" he said, sounding like an adult even with the tears in his eyes.

Naruto adapted a pained expression and tried his best not to look away from Sasuke's son. "Seichi…" he started painfully. "Your father…"

The boy's eyes only seemed to get wider and wider with every word.

"…has been missing. W-we don't know where he is."

Seichi's face fell. After a few short moments, he pulled away from the blonde, and grimaced. "Liar!" he screamed, sounding shrill, before he turned to run out of the room. To his surprise the three policemen let him.

When Naruto looked up in question, the one he didn't recognize, a tall man with short gray hair, and a scar on his forehead, shook his head and smiled. "Don't worry. He won't go far."

Naruto blinked back at the man warily. Half of his heart was aching to run after Seichi, but the other half was waiting desperately for some answers. The gray haired man stared at him with an emotion that teetered on friendly, but didn't unite make it. Naruto felt like he'd seen him before, or at least someone like him, but he couldn't know for sure.

"We're sorry if the measures we took to get you here were a bit…extreme." Said the gray haired policeman with a small smile. He moved further into the room and closed the door behind him. "But we had to make sure, that this…accident…was the work of one man alone."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man. What the hell was he talking about?

The man seemed to notice his confusion and smiled a bit more. "Forgive me. I am Masashi Hatake, head of this police department."

Naruto couldn't help the gasp that escaped him. Hatake? Did that mean, "Are you Kakashi's father?"

Masashi took a small step backwards, and raised both eyebrows at the blonde. "How do you know about my son?" he asked, almost angrily.

Naruto leaned back in his chair with a lame shrug. "I…h-he and Iruka live in—"

Masashi hissed and rolled his eyes. "I don't want to know anything about my son and his sick fascination with that worthless excuse for a man." He said scathingly. It was like his whole demeanor changed, and Naruto couldn't find the anger that would have usually followed that statement, he was so scared.

"There's very little that we need from you, Naruto." Masashi said quietly. "One thing actually. And that's the truth." He moved further into the room until he was directly in front of the blonde, on the other side of the table. "We're going to ask you a few questions, and we want you to tell us the truth. That's all."

Naruto was still stuck on the scathing remark he made about Iruka. Finally, he mustered up a glare. "Why should I tell you anything? I-I don't have a lawyer, or—"

"Please, Naruto." said Nara. Naruto forgot he was in the room. "There's been a murder. You're more of a witness than a suspect. We don't have time for court dealings right now."

Naruto blinked back slowly at the detective. He looked so…out of it. He wondered what the hell the case meant to him.

"We aren't going to lie to Naruto." said Masashi. "We…have a few ideas of who the culprit might be. But…there are some things we need to get straight first." The man nodded to Shikamaru and gestured towards the chair in front of Naruto.

The detective shook his head, but looked at Naruto and began to speak. "First question: why were you at Sakura's house this morning?"

Naruto sputtered. "How do you know I was there? Were you spying—"

"You're the one who told us, Naruto." He said quietly.

Naruto blinked. "Oh."

"And, Ino told me when I came to see her today."

Naruto opened his mouth in shock. "Wait, you saw Ino, before she died! Then how the hell was she _murdere_—"

"Shikamaru's the one asking questions, brat." said Neji from the door.

"Just answer the question, Naruto." Said the detective dully.

Naruto hesitated, but continued anyway. "I-I wanted to know if Sakura had come back. I'm supposed to give Seichi back tomorrow. That was our deal—for me to take care of the kid for a week. But when she stopped answering my calls…"

"Did you, at any time, enter the house when you visited Ino this morning?"

Naruto paused. "Uhm. No. I spoke to her from the door. I didn't ask to come in, and she didn't invite me in. I just needed some answers. When she didn't give them to me, I just left—"

"When was the last time you were in the house?"

"I…the last time I was there, you were too. We _met_, remember, and I—"

"So this time and the last time were the only times you were at Sakura's place this past few weeks?"

Naruto nodded his head slowly. "You guys said you had a few ideas who the murderer might be. Why the hell am I one of them? I would _never_—"

"We need to make sure you're not his accomplice." Shikamaru said lightly. "And we need to know who the letter is for."

"_Accomplice_? For who?" Naruto exclaimed, finally exasperated by all the holes in their explanations. "You grab me out of nowhere, when you're not even sure I did something, you ask me these weird questions without telling me what for, and then you tell me you know who did it? Why am I here? And what freaking letter? Who the hell killed Ino?"

Shikamaru looked very solemn then, and he closed his eyes.

Masashi cleared his throat for a moment, before he looked straight into Naruto's eyes and said, "Naruto. We thought you would have figured it out by now. It was Gaara Sabako."

Naruto felt his heart shut down.

No. That was lie. Because if his heart had shut down then he wouldn't be feeling what he was feeling now. The utter fear at having that name echo in his ears like the chilled air that kept him up the first few nights since he's moved into his new apartment.

"G-G-G-_Gaara_?" He didn't even care about the way his voice croaked—because how could it not croak? When this incident meant that his dreams of the redhead being somewhere far, far away from here were now shot down the drains. Gaara wasn't in Zimbabwe or Iceland or anywhere else outside the country because he was here. Right here. And he killed Ino.

He didn't know what the look in his face was, but the people in the room with him began to look worried.

"Naruto?" it was the detective who said that. "Are you alright?"

Naruto mumbled something but he was unsure of what it was. There was more silence in the room, with only their breathing.

"We need to get down to business, Naruto."

Naruto might have nodded his head, but he wasn't sure.

"We think Gaara has an accomplice."

Naruto threw his head up and looked at the detective with wide eyes. "What? Who in their right mind would work with that guy?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "There are more people who adore this man than you think, Naruto. He fascinates people. But I don't think this accomplice is merely a fan."

Naruto was still stuck on the word _fans_. How could Gaara have _fans_.

Shikamaru must've seen the question in his eyes because he answered. "If you researched him, Naruto, you'd see sites dedicated to praising him. Follow him. Things like that. We don't take those sites down because we need them to get leads on his whereabouts."

Naruto wasn't sure if he should be glad that he voogled the redhead's school instead of his name. Why were there so many sick people in the world?

"If that's the case then maybe he's always had an accomplice. Why do you think he has one now?"

"It's either that or he's learned new tricks." said Neji. Naruto had forgotten once again that he was in the room.

Hatake shook his head, getting Naruto's attention. "It's not about getting new tricks. We already knew the freak was a genius. It's about the style of the killings. We've had people who've tried to imitate him before, but their imitations were full of faults, full of holes. This murder has his essence and someone else's."

"What do you mean his essence? His style? What are you talking about?"

"We're talking about the way Ino was killed, Naruto." Shikamaru said exasperatedly. "We have a strong feeling it's Gaara, because it would be just like him to poison her food with a chemical that makes her bone marrow boil until it explodes like glass."

There was silence in the room for a long time, save for the harsh breath of Shikamaru, who was glaring at the wall now, with his fists at his side.

Naruto was still trying to choke the information down. "P-poison?"

When Shikamaru didn't say anything, Masashi moved in. "Yes, Naruto poison. That's how Gaara likes it. Clean. Effortless. He doesn't like to touch his victims, or at least, his victims never carry his prints. He makes things, poisons and gases, that are filled with chemicals that aren't meant to come into contact with the human body. Compounds that have been banned, or things he's made up. That's the way he works."

"…A-and what's the other person doing? The accomplice?"

The grey haired man visibly hesitated, before he shook his head. "Naruto, what we're about to tell you is to stay confidential and in this room. After today you're officially part of the investigation to capture and incapacitate this fiend."

"W-wait." Naruto said, sitting up. "What if I don't want to be a part of the investigation?"

"Then you will remain a suspect until you're officially proven _otherwise_." The man spat back, glaring at Naruto. He seemed baffled that the blonde wanted to back out of it. "How could you not want to be involved, when your friend has been murdered."

Naruto stared at the man with wide eyes for a long time before he leaned back in his chair, and said at steadily as he could. "Ino wasn't my friend. She was…someone I knew…a long time ago but—"

"Someone you knew a long time ago could just as easily turn into a friend of a friend, then a real friend, then family members—don't you understand Naruto? Once Sabako has a hold of one, he will capture all, and he will annihilate all who oppose him. Your friends are just as dead as Ino if you don't stick with us and help us—"

"Help you? Doesn't the guy know who you are? You said he's a genius, Kakashi said some of you actually worked on his case. I'm not going to be involved when you guys are already his target!"

"What are you saying, brat?" Neji said, pushing passed Shikamaru. "You think we can't do our job. You think that we're going to let people _die_ because we can't find this guy—"

"That's exactly what I think! Ino is dead, Sasuke is missing, Sakura's _gone_—What the fuck have you guys done?" Naruto shouted, standing up. "I'm not saying that I don't want to help. I'm just saying that…" he paused and sighed. "I just don't want to be on the losing team."

"So you're going to join _Gaara_, then?" Neji spat back.

"No! That's not what I mean! And what are you trying to say? That Gaara's _winning_?"

"He will if neither of you cooperate!" shouted Masashi, waving his hands. "Stop it, both of you. " he stood in between them and glared at Neji before he turned back to the blonde. "Naruto. All we're asking is that you stick with us. Tell us what you know. Follow our rules, and help us take this guy and his accomplice out."

Naruto hesitated before he spoke again. "…I still don't understand how I'm involved in all of this…or how Gaara could have an accomplice."

The officers in front of him looked at each other warily, and that infuriated Naruto.

"Well?" he said. "Are you going to tell me or what?"

Shikamaru sighed and moved up so he was right across from the blonde. "I went to visit her approximately a half an after hour you did. She and I…talked, and we…" he paused then he shook his head. "Maybe an hour later, I left and I went back into the station. Less than an hour later we received an emergency call from Sakura house." The detective paused again, before he put his head down. "All we could hear was Ino's screaming. Screaming for help."

Naruto gulped down a lump in his throat. How painful was Ino's death?

"We have a feeling that Ino didn't call for help herself. It was Gaara—or the culprit, who called the police—purposely. He wanted us to get there. The call lasted less than a minute, and even before it ended police were rushing to Sakura's house. I was in one of the patrol cars. When we got to Sakura's house, in what couldn't be more than forty-five minutes later, the culprits were gone and Ino was…she was…" he couldn't continue.

Neji took it up for him. "Her eyes had been pulled out of her skull, and replaced with glass eyes, and her chest was ravaged and torn open with knife wounds." He said calmly. "That's why we knew the kind of poison Gaara used. We saw her blasted bones in her ribcage. Shikamaru recognized the poison from a case he'd dealt with before…"

There was silence for a while, before Naruto had the guts to ask, "H-how do you know Gaara has an accomplice?" he asked lightly.

"Because of the make-up on Ino's face when we found her. And the letter. That's where you come in." said Neji.

Naruto leaned back. "Make-up? _Letter_?"

Shikamaru sighed. "When we found Ino she was clothed and covered with make-up. It almost looked like she was sleeping. But when we tried to wake her, and pulled her shirt aside to perform medical aid…"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Why are you telling me this now? Why do your stories have so many holes? Why do you always keep things from me until I have to outrightly ask them?" he asked angrily.

"Because we don't _trust_ you." Spat Neji. "And you were the last one to talk to Sakura."

"What does Sakura have to do with this now?" Naruto exclaimed. "Stop giving me pieces of the puzzle and revealing things like this towards the end!"

"We think Sakura knew Ino was going to get killed."

The way blatant way Shikamaru said it shocked Naruto just as much as the actual statement. "_What_?" Naruto stumbled backwards a bit, before he gained his footing. "What are you saying? What are you talking about? Sakura couldn't have—"

"We think, Naruto. It isn't written in stone."

Naruto glared at him. "You think? And then when you see her, are you gonna arrest her and drag her like a fucking slave into this place the same way you did with me? Because you think she might have known?" Naruto couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry. "Is that the way this police station works?" he seethed. "Based on fucking opinions that may or may not be fucking true?"

"Naruto, we have to do our job—"

"Fuck your job!" Naruto screamed hysterically. "You guys have no idea what you're doing! How dare you say that Sakura has anything to do with this—"

"And what makes you so sure she doesn't?" asked Shikamaru, raising his voice. "Because you grew up with her? Because you love her? Let me tell you something, Naruto. People will do anything to get what they want. Sakura is no exception—"

"Sakura would never—"

"I'm not saying she did, Naruto." Shikamaru continued, exasperated. "We're just saying she's capable. And she's a primary suspect."

Naruto opened his mouth to scream again, but paused. "P-primary? Are you saying Sakura might be Gaara's accomplice? Are you out of your mind?"

"We're not saying that, Naruto." The detective replied wiping a hand through his hair. "But we're in the dark here. We don't know where Sakura is. We thought we had a lead on her but it turned out to be a decoy made by her, which is why we have our suspicions—"

"Sakura's just looking for Sasuke!" Naruto cried. "She's just trying to find out where the hell her husband went. She's probably lost somewhere, and scared out of her mind—"

"You and I both know that Sakura's a smart girl, Naruto." Neji said, coming out of nowhere. "You and I both know that the only reason why she would up and look for the Uchiha herself only now, is because she's got a lead. She might know where he is, or Sasuke might have contacted her, and told her not to tell anyone—the possibilities are endless. That's why we're striking at all sides, trying to get suspicions and suspected persons that might have any relation to the case out of the way without revealing too much that might force them to hide their true colors. We've already told you almost everything. If anything, you might go to Gaara right now and tell him what you know."

"I would never do that." Naruto whispered, almost automatically. The words Neji had spoken were probably the most reasonable statements he'd heard since he got here. These men were lost. Someone was murdered, and they had no idea where to turn. So they were striking blindly. Naruto didn't think they were even sure about it actually being Gaara who killed Ino. Different style, they'd said. Different essence. It probably wasn't Gaara at all.

"What…" he started quietly. "What about the letter?"

Shikamaru visibly hesitated before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crumpled piece of paper. He handed to Naruto, but paused when he realized the blonde was still in cuffs. He sighed and unfolded the letter himself so that he could hold it up to the blonde.

Naruto snorted and peered at the thing. Adjusting himself so his shadow could stop making the paper see-through. He looked at it and squinted his eyes. The letter was typed and wasn't even two lines.

_You are in my dreams. Half human, half machine. When we meet I will imposter a new you. Dead and undead. Just remember that I knew you before you knew me. It starts now._

Naruto blinked and leaned back. What? He read the letter again, before he gulped and closed his eyes. The letter sent chills through his spine. It was like the person who wrote it wanted to…rearrange the person it was for. But at the same time, it didn't rack fear into his body like…like Gaara's name did. It just made him feel dirty…like someone as watching him with perverted eyes.

"Do you think Gaara wrote this?" he asked quietly.

Shikamaru pulled the letter back and put it into his pocket. "In all truth, no. But it was at the scene of the crime."

"I don't think it's Gaara at all." Naruto said quietly. "H-he might have something to do with it, but all of this…Ino being murdered….the letters. It's not him."

"And how can you say that?" Shikamaru asked slowly, walking towards the blonde.

Naruto looked away. "Because…" he started lamely. "…because I'm not scared of the person in this letter." He said with a loud sigh. "I'm not…shaking or…about to piss my pants. Anything that has to do with Gaara, I can't breathe. I practically choke on my tongue. This person doesn't do that to me—"

"And are you some sort of Gaara expert now? Are you sensitive to his work or something—"

"Enough, Neji." Said Masashi with a sigh. "I understand where the boy is coming from. However," he continued gravely, "it doesn't mean we can't drop our suspicions. We're going to re-assign the search group for Gaara. They haven't done anything. We'll start with this city, then we'll move on to the next, and alert all the other stations about this look-out."

Naruto gulped down for another reason now. In all honestly, it was the simplest thing to do. He didn't know why he'd taken so long to finally have the balls to do this. With a deep breath, Naruto stood up straight and cleared his throat. Three pairs of eyes narrowed at him. "I…" he started slowly. "It's been really strange…these past few weeks. I-'ve never had so much drama in my entire life, a-and I wanted to tell you this before—tried to, really, I tried to—but the circumstances, a-and the fear, and—"

"Get on with it." Neji spat.

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. The image of Ino's dead body, and Sakura's sad made him make his decision. "I think I know where Gaara is."

* * *

End of Chapter

**14,000 words!**

Authors Note

SORRY. This took longer to update then it was supposed to. I wouldn't be surprised if no one remembers this story, =/. It's all good though, I deserve it for taking several months to update.

Story Notes

If it looks like this story is coming to an end, it's not, trust me. There are so many twists and turns left. I can't wait until Naruto finally meets Gaara! =]

Thank you for reading (those of you who did), and the number of hits I get mean just as much to me as the number of reviews. SO read and review, okay? 'Cause it makes me feel so go0od. =]


	9. Of Doppelgängers and Holier Shits

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Nine: _Of Doppelgangers and Holier Shits_

* * *

He could do this.

He could _do_ this.

Naruto looked out the car window and saw the building across from his own approaching. He gulped.

He couldn't do this.

Naruto shook is head. Of course he could. He wasn't alone. There were plenty of people to back him up. The worst that could happen was…

Naruto's eyes widened ahead of him. There were a lot of _worsts_ that could happen. He put an arm around himself to calm down, but it didn't work.

Damn it, he thought. How the hell was he going to do this? And why did he feel like…like everyone assembled to capture Gaara were all going to fail miserably?

Naruto shook ahead, and let out a shaky breath. Damn it, what was wrong with him? It wasn't like they were going to make him approach the door on his own. It wasn't like Gaara, if it really _was_ him who lived there, would have a chance to somehow harmhim—not when there would be so many policemen to stop him.

Naruto looked behind him again, and yes, from here he could see at least three more police cars following the one he was in. He knew that Seichi was in the last one—a car that didn't even look like a federal vehicle, as it was black with tinted windows. That car was meant to protect the boy only, so no one in there was required to leave the car as the other officers stormed and searched the building. Naruto was glad knowing that at least Seichi would be safe.

In front of the car Naruto was in was a large black truck-van looking car. It was like a black ambulance with tinted windows. Maybe it was a S.W.A.T car, Naruto thought with a nervous laugh.

"Tell me, Naruto,"

Naruto looked up with a start. It was Masashi Hatake who spoke. He sat in the front seat of the car, on the passenger side. Someone Naruto didn't recognize was driving the car.

"After all this time…why did you wait until now to tell us?"

Naruto looked out the window guilty. "I…wasn't _sure_." He said plainly. "It seemed so unreal and unlikely that I…just didn't tell anyone before now." He finished with a shrug.

"What you told us about this man makes us think it has to be Sabako." The man said gravely. "It would be just like him to be as mysterious as he is—appearing in places he shouldn't be and such. But the part about the pie, and the "oil" on the windows—I have to admit that it's unlike him. It's almost as if he _wants_ you to know he's there." Naruto could see him shake his head. "Gaara never carried out his crimes in secret…but he never exposed himself so blatantly before…"

Naruto gulped. "I…yeah." He finished lamely. He didn't really know what he was agreeing to, though.

The head policeman nodded, satisfied with himself, and turned to look in front of him again. "You don't have to be afraid anymore. After today, you'll never have to worry about Gaara ever again—"

"Wait," Naruto started, shaking his head. "There's always a possibility it's not him, remember? There's always a possibility that I've just been paranoid because of Sasuke being missing and all—you know?"

"That doesn't matter." Hatake said. " We will treat the situation as highly dangerous, and if we are wrong we will deal with the consequences of that later."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. He really didn't like how the police force worked.

"Besides," the man continued. "Gaara or not, the person in that apartment is obviously up to no good. We'll find something to arrest him for."

Naruto shook his head and looked out the window. That logic didn't sound right in his ears, but he couldn't really argue. Not when they were already three blocks from Building 1313, which was a less than thirty-second trip in a car.

There was a _crrch_-ing sound, like a radio transmission, before Naruto heard the distant voice of Shikamaru on another line, "Should we hold off a block before, sir?"

There was a beeping sound before Hatake answered. "A block before, yes. We don't want him peeking out the window, finding us here, and planning an escape.

Hmm, Naruto thought. Now that he thought about, it, this was a stealth mission wasn't it? None of the police sirens sounded and the police cars weren't really racing to get to their destination. They were treating the situation very carefully. Naruto thought that was a good thing.

Then the vehicle he was in was pulling over, and Naruto didn't think anything was good anymore.

"Alright," Hatake said quietly. "We are going in."

Naruto gulped and put a handle on the door.

Hatake turned to look at him with a frown. "What are you doing?"

Naruto blinked at him. "Opening the door?"

Hatake's frown deepened. "You didn't think we were going to let you come in with us, did you?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "What? You weren't? Then why did you bring me along?" Naruto didn't know if that feeling in his chest was relief or something closer to anger.

The man's eyes narrowed at him. "Naruto we would never take an innocent civilian into the building of a criminal—not when we think we're about to capture one of the most dangerous men in the country."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. He couldn't really say anything. He knew that if he came he would be shitting in his pants all the way up the elevator, or stairs if policemen stayed true to the movies. And even then he would have to stay behind as they knocked on Gaara's door—_if_ it was Gaara—and capture him. Naruto didn't really understand how that was going to work out actually. How would they know when to arrest someone? Would they just look at him to see if he resembled the redhead, or would they question him, maybe search his house, before they decided to take him in?

Naruto shook his head. Now that he thought about it, it was a good thing he wasn't going up there. He didn't want to be involved in the drama that he knew would ensue. In fact, if it really was Gaara up there, then he wasn't going to go down without a fight was he? He would do something to somehow hurt the people capturing him, before he let himself be taken away.

There was a tap on Naruto's window. When he looked up he saw Hatake on the other side, looking at him with a determined look. "We'll be back." He said with a fierce nod, before walking away. Following him down the block were a group of armed men wearing all black.

There were other officers, making some sort of blockade between the civilians and the building. On-lookers were watching the scene with curiosity, and Naruto saw people looking out their windows at the sight.

Naruto contemplated getting out of the car to see better. He was still protected, he thought, so long as he was nowhere near the building. When he pulled the handle on the door the driver of the police car "ahem"ed. Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Where are you going?" the man had a bored voice.

"Uhm, I'm just stepping outside." The blonde said. "Uh, I-I need some fresh air, I think."

The man looked at him through the rear view mirror with dark eyes before he shrugged his shoulders. "Just don't get any bad ideas. You're still under suspicion, I think…" he trailed off, questioningly, before he shrugged his shoulders again.

Naruto frowned. He thought he knew why this guy was just a driver and not running into the building to help the others now.

"Yeah, I'll be right outside." He replied while opening the door.

When he was outside, he closed the door lightly behind him, and deeply breathed in the outside air. He had to stop short though, because the air was so cold.

It was such a gloomy day today, especially since it had been raining less than an hour before.

People were outside anyway, surrounding the blockade the policemen were half-heartedly making. There was a yellow warning tape line that went from one police car to another in front of the building, and three armed men were standing at each side of the building, poised for battle, it seemed.

Naruto didn't think that any of this was unnecessary. In fact he wasn't sure if they were doing _enough_. He didn't know what it was, but he felt as if something absolutely horrible was about to happen. The feeling was worse than it was when he'd been on his way to Gaara's apartment, he thought, because back then he was running away from something he could blame on paranoia alone. This time, knowing what Gaara was capable of—_if_ it was Gaara up there—scared the crap out of hm. Even if he wasn't up there himself, Naruto felt like he could get hurt anyway.

There was a quick movement to his left, and he saw another man in black rushing past him talking fervently into what looked like a very bulky phone.

"I can't _hear_, you." He was saying angrily. "What the fuck is going on up there?" He stopped right at the front entrance and pointed two fingers towards the door. Two of the officers standing at the doorway rushed inside.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. What was going on?

He saw the man shouting angrily into the receiver again, but Naruto couldn't hear what he was saying from this distance away. He took a few steps closer, perking up his ears, but the wind was picking up. Naruto sighed. He wanted to know what was going on, but the car was parked a block away from the scene.

He gave the driver in the front seat a quick look, and saw that he was sitting with his arms crossed, staring blankly ahead. Would he notice if Naruto walked up the block to be closer to the building? He wanted to be where the other civilians were, perched right outside the warning tape that went from the S.W.A.T van and another police car, just in front of the entrance. He gave the driver of the car he was in one last look, before he shuffled ahead, past the car and attempted to make it to the crowd. It was hard, since there were so many of them, so instead he found himself on the sidewalk, several yards away from building 1313 entrance. The police weren't really occupying the area, and didn't really take notice of him.

The man he saw screaming angrily into the dinosaur phone was pacing in front of the entrance now, while at least five other officers, surrounded him, talking angrily and waving their hands. The man wearing all black stopped and said something else to another man with a grave expression. The man he spoke to nodded with a scowl, before he turned around and faced the crowd surrounding the warning tape.

"I want each and everyone one of you to step the back!" he shouted angrily. "This is a crime scene!"

Naruto's eyes widened. A crime scene? What did that mean? Were they communicating with the people upstairs? Did they find something up there?

He stood there, frozen on the spot, before—

"Naruto!"

The blonde looked up, startled.

He was surprised when he saw Iruka standing in the front of the crowd behind the warning tape—how did he not notice him before?—and Kakashi, standing right behind him, looking up at the building with narrowed eyes. He didn't seem to notice the blonde.

"Iruka!" Naruto shouted, before he could help it.

"What the hell is going on?" the landlord shouted back.

"I don't kno—"

"Hey! You can't be here!" shouted a police officer, looking at Naruto with fire in his eyes and yellow bared teeth—it was the man who'd told the crowd to move back.

Naruto froze on the spot, intimidated by the officer in front him. "I'm sorr—"

"How the hell did you get here anyway?" the man growled into his face.

The blonde gulped and looked away. Obviously not everyone was aware of his role in all of this. "I was—", he started nervously—

But he never got the chance to finish.

When Naruto would think back on what happened at that moment he would remember quickness of it.

It started with a loud clapping sound, as if a thousand gorillas smacked their hands together at the same time—then it was a million claps, at least thirty per second, c-c-c-c-_lap_, c-c-c-c-c-_clap_!

Machine guns.

That's what they were. Sounding above him. Right above him. On the fifth floor. Apartment 5F.

There was screaming from the crowd, and he heard the man that came at him shouting for everyone to get down, but Naruto stood there in shock. Staring up at the window of the apartment building. Lights, like lightening, flitter-fluttered constantly, matching the gun shot sounds. Naruto's eye twitched with each one, and he was shaking while he stood. Who were those gunshots hitting?

Naruto shivered, cold sweat running down his face from his forehead.

He couldn't move.

The explosion did it. Like a crack of thunder, brought in by the lightening of the gunshots, there was an enormous boom, and at least two windows exploded. All of witch belonged to apartment 5F.

Naruto ducked, falling to the ground.

People were screaming louder now. Terrorist attack, they were screaming, get down, they were crying. But Naruto couldn't see them. Not anymore. Dust. And pebbles. They were everywhere. Clouding his eyesight, falling and littering in his view.

And then there was another.

_Boom_.

That one took Naruto's ears. He couldn't hear the screams anymore—only a muffled warping sound that sounded like flat, flexible metal flapping in the wind.

Naruto put his hands to his ears. He was still on the floor. Gasping, he realized. Breathing in stone dust.

Then there were hands on his shoulders, pulling him roughly up. He felt lips on his ear, shouting something warped, and nonsensical—Naruto could hear something else. Like—

Like men screaming—

From above.

He—

_Smwaarrrkkk_—

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the man who'd just fallen from the window. Smashed against the pavement face first, with his fingers still twitching, and one leg spasming awkwardly against the ground. The other was broken.

Naruto's hearing was back.

And there were sounds. All around him. Misery. Shock.

And then another man came down. Smashing against the pavement.

_Smraakkk_.

Half a leg was sprawled on the previously fallen. Neck twisted at an odd angle—broken.

Then the third man came down.

Alive, still. But then crushed by the forth man who came down.

Who was crushed by the fifth.

Who was crushed by the—

"Get him _out_ of here!"

And then Naruto was shoved to the side, and caught by someone else, who in turn shoved/walked him for what seemed like miles, before throwing him into a crowd.

People caught him, and held on to him, shouting things in his ear.

Naruto didn't care.

His heart was gone.

He could tell from the way it spilled into his hands, from out of his mouth, dripping with blood and hanging flesh—like the fifth man who'd fallen.

Naruto twitched.

He wondered if a seventh man had fallen by now.

He almost felt like getting out and looking—except then he would drop his heart, which was pulsing away at his hands, trying to use tentacles to climb back into his body.

Naruto didn't feel like having a heart right now. So he didn't help it.

Wouldn't have been much help anyway.

Just like he hadn't been much help to the men who'd fallen from the sky.

One by one.

To their deaths.

Right in front of him.

Another twitch. From him. Not as violent as the twitch he remembered he saw coming from the first man's fingers. Or the third man's leg.

There was another pair of hands, shaking him and dragging him away from the incessant sounds of rubble, and he let himself be dragged, not caring who it was or what they wanted from him.

He was dragged to a corner, and for a fleeting moment he thought he was going to be mugged, and left for dead. But just like every other thought, it fled, and left Naruto uncaring again.

Until someone slapped his face.

He seemed to shake out of his trance, and shook violently against the hold of whoever it was holding him.

"Naruto, wait—it's _me_!"

Naruto stopped shaking, and turned to the side to look. He was shocked to find Iruka there, looking at him with wide concerned eyes.

"Naruto what is _wrong_ with you—standing in the way like that! It was dangerous!"

Naruto blinked a few times, but still said nothing.

"Naruto…" the man started slowly, "are you in shock? Did you…hit your head?"

A hand came and rested on Naruto's temple, just above his ear.

"Naruto….can you even hear me right now?"

Naruto could hear.

He just couldn't _speak_.

He didn't know if he would ever have words again, after what he'd just witnessed.

There was another hand on his hair, and he heard another familiar voice. "Leave him for now, Iruka. He needs a little time. We all do."

It was Kakashi's voice, calmer than it should have been in a situation like this. When Naruto looked up he realized that they were in an ally, with what looked like dozens of other people crouched against the wall with their heads over their heads, or shouting into their phones, or holding tight to their kids. There were two officers in the front of the ally, seemingly standing guard, and telling everyone to back up every now and then. From beyond the commotion Naruto realized that the explosions had stopped. All that was left was the sounds of sirens screaming, random citizens crying out, and officials, and perhaps paramedics screaming at each other.

Naruto blinked. How much time had passed since he was just there, watching those men fall?

When he looked up he found Iruka talking to Kakashi with anger and fear in his eyes, while Kakashi stood there solemnly, staring passed his partner.

Naruto shivered.

What now?

* * *

It was two hours before the officials allowed the people in the ally to leave. There'd been a brawl about it before, as one of the bigger persons became fed up with the idea of being stranded inside a corner while family and friends were probably wondering where he was, but the officers had only told him that they were on strict orders to keep civilians away from disaster across the street.

When Naruto had stepped out of the ally he found that he wasn't exactly across from the mess anymore. He'd been shoved a block down, closer to where the car he was in before this whole mess was parked. He'd panicked about Seichi for a while, but found out through officers that the only fatalities included those who entered the building, and all others harmed by rubble would survive.

Residents of apartment building 1313, 1312 and the surrounding housings weren't allowed to go back home until 10:00pm. Scouts were doing rounds around each building, looking for similar devices used to bomb room 5F in building 1313. All stores were closed in the city, and all buses were rerouted for detour routes around Naruto's town. The owners of all vehicles were told to take their cars away from the bomb site in an hour or else their cars would be towed, so there'd been a scramble of people, getting into their vehicles and trying to find space for it elsewhere.

Kakashi and Iruka had been one of those people, with Iruka growling how he wasn't going to get his car towed _again_, and they dragged Naruto with him, opening the door for him and holding on to his sides as he went inside, as if helping a child, or a senior citizen. Naruto had been too out of it to argue or wonder where they were taking him when the car finally came into motion, leaving that part of town behind. The entire time Iruka talked, speculating about "what the hell happened" and "what was this world coming to", but Kakashi provided nothing. He stayed silent, like Naruto had been.

They'd driven to a polished bar Naruto was unfamiliar with. He knew it was far from where he lived, because it seemed more of a suburban neighborhood, unlike the urban neighborhood he lived in.

They were waited a table when they went inside, and Naruto was surprised to find the place almost empty. He figured with everyone scrambling out of town, places like this would be packed.

So now there they were, sitting on a table, at a polished bar. They'd been asked if they wanted to order anything, and Iruka said they all needed more time.

It was also Iruka who made Naruto say his first words, in what had probably been more than three hours.

"I'm fine." He mumbled, after the scarred man had asked him for the umpteenth time if he was alright.

Iruka gave him a small smile and squeezed his hands from across the table. "I'm glad. Thought we'd have to take you to the hospital."

Naruto mumbled something back, but wasn't sure what it was.

The waiter who'd sat them at the table was back again, with a writing pad in his hand. "Ready to order yet?" he asked.

Iruka smiled at him. "Not yet, Keil. We've had kind of a rough night; we might just not order anything at all."

Keil nodded his head and put a hand on his hips. "Hey Iruka, aren't you from that town? The one with the terrorist bombing?"

Iruka nodded his head. "Is that what it is, then? A terrorist attack?"

"That's what everyone is saying. But it looks to me like they have no idea."

"Who's they?" asked Iruka.

"The news people. They're speculating like everyone else is. The police aren't giving out information, or something like that. But if you ask me that isn't really fair to the people. We have a right to know who's trying to kill us."

"Are we at war, still?" Iruka asked. "Last time I checked, we—"

"This country is always at war. I'm surprised someone held a terrorist attack in a small town like that though. There isn't really anything important or political about that place."

"Well maybe the terrorists are using a new strategy—"

"It's not terrorists."

Naruto was just as surprised and everyone else when he spoke. His voice sounded horse, but was loud enough for everyone to hear.

"What was that, Naruto?"

The blonde shook his head. "It's not terrorists."

Iruka blinked. "How can you be so sure?"

Naruto pursed his lips for a moment, before he sighed and spoke. "What happened…was something that could have been prevented…something that would have never happened if I just told _sooner_—" Naruto stopped himself, and put his head down.

"Naruto…" Iruka said, holding a hand out. "What are you saying?"

The blonde shook his head and said nothing. He felt like hiding away somewhere and not dealing with anyone right now. Things were just beginning to dawn on him. The enormity and height of the disaster that he could have prevented was dawning on him, closing in on him.

"Naruto…maybe we should—"

"I'm sorry." Naruto said, picking his head up and standing from the table. "Thank you for…taking care of me, but I have to go now. I have to—" Naruto stopped himself, not really knowing what to say. All he knew was that he had to get out of here, wherever "here" was, find some answers and get himself together.

"Wait, Naruto. You probably have no idea where we are, and—"

"Then tell me," Naruto said, cutting Iruka off, "how do I get to Hatake police station from here?"

The scarred man blinked at him, and looked at Kakashi for help. The grey haired ma simply shook his head, and sighed gustily. "Why would you bother going there? After something like this happens, they won't be at the police department; they'd all be in the hospital, catering to injured, and the fallen. Then the next stop after that are the optional autopsies, and then the mass funerals." Kakashi reached into his pocket and fiddled for a moment. What he took out was a cigarette.

"_Kakashi_," Iruka hissed.

"Just this once," the grey haired man said softly. "Just until I get over the fact that my father is probably dead."

Everyone listening widened their eyes.

"Kakashi…" Iruka exclaimed, putting a hand on his partner's arm. "What—"

"I saw him go into that building. And when the bomb exploded…" Kakashi, for some reason let out a tired smile, "…I think he's was a goner..."

"Oh, god…Kakashi, I'm so sorry. How could—You've been letting me talk and talk all this time and this has been on your mind—"

Kakashi shook his head, effectively stopping Iruka's upset rant. "It's alright."

Naruto closed his eyes and put his hands over them. What he was feeling…it was killing him from the inside. It was like, grief and terror multiplied—or something. Masashi Hatake, head of the police department, was dead. Had he been one of the officers to come crashing onto the cement floor? Naruto shivered. He would probably never know.

"Kid." Kakashi said, bringing the blonde out of his thoughts. "Just go home. Everything that's happened…is all something you should keep out of. Out of your league."

Naruto blinked slowly. Kakashi was right. All of this…madness, wasn't for him. He was an innocent man, being dragged into…whatever the hell this was, and if he didn't back out now, then…The images of the falling men flashed before him, and Naruto shivered. He had to run away. He had to get away from all of this—he didn't care if he had to live with his grandmother for a while, or maybe even Kiba. All he cared about was escaping, and never having to deal with any of this ever again—

But what about Seichi? Naruto felt pain in the back of his eyes. He couldn't leave the brat behind, especially now that the police department was probably going to be in hectic shambles. He had to find the boy somehow, and then take him somewhere safe. God forbid Gaara was after him too…

Naruto let his head fall down as he braced his arms against the table. "Thank you, for taking care of me." he said softly, to the both of them. "But I can't stay here. I have to find Seichi, and I need to find some answers."

"What do you expect to do once you get the boy? And what makes you think he'd be handed over to you after what's happened?" Kakashi asked, crossing his arms.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't _know_." He said, angrily. "All I know is that I'm going to do it, and I'm not going to let anyone stop me."

"Not even the authorities who have more right over the child then you do? Like Sasuke's coworkers?"

Naruto shook his head. "All I know is that I need to get him to a safe place. Somewhere no one will find him—"

"You haven't done much research, have you?" Kakashi said, almost mockingly. "If you know anything about the killer," he was careful not to mention Gaara's name, "then you'd know that he knows everything about you, already—maybe even things you don't know about yourself."

Naruto shut his eyes. He remembered someone telling him those exact words once before. Was it Shikamaru? Masashi?

"What are you two talking about? Who's he?"

Kakashi didn't reply; he only continued to stare at Naruto, waiting for his answer.

The blonde made another small grunt under his breath and stood up straight from the table. "Then what should I do?" he half shouted. "There has to be something I can do. Everything is just so messed up, and I know somewhere along these sequence of events I could have done something to prevent all of it—"

"Stop it, Naruto." Kakashi's voice was calm, despite the blonde's raised tone. "Right now, all you can do is research. Find out who you're dealing with, and understand him, because it seems to me that you're more involved than I thought. And leave Seichi to me, if we absolutely have to deal with him. Both of his parents are missing, so the department will leave him in the care of a children's home—I'll intercept that transaction."

"Thank you—"

"And if you really want to take affirmative action, and perhaps get more information about what the hell happened in that apartment, I suggest you go to the nearest, biggest hospital the city. People who've been hurt will be sent there, and the deceased will be stored there until identified by friends and family members "

Naruto hesitated. "And where would that be?"

"Mushroom City Hospital."

Naruto's eyes widened. He knew where that was. He'd been sent there a couple of times after getting into fights, but the most significant part about that place was that it was where his grandmother worked. Or at least, it used to be the most significant part until he learned of what happened in Mushroom City—the school massacre.

"Naruto, if this seems like too much for you—"

"It isn't." Naruto said, shaking his head. "How do I get to the hospital from here?"

Kakashi eyed the blonde for a moment more, before he sighed. "You don't have to go by yourself. I'll take you."

"Kakashi—"

"It's fine Iruka." The gray haired man said, cutting his partner off. "If you'd like to stay here, that's fine. I'll be back for you—"

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you go there by yourself," Iruka hissed, offended.

He earned a small blink from Kakashi, then a small smile. "Right. Sorry."

Naruto clenched his fists, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the obvious affection radiating between the two men.

"We," he started quietly, "should go."

Kakashi nodded his head and stood from his own chair. "You're right. Let's go."

The waiter who'd been standing there, watching the scene with wide eyes seemed to come to his senses when everyone stood up. "U-uh, have a nice day, and please come again!" he called after them, as they walked towards the exit.

Iruka turned around and bowed quickly to the man, before he followed Naruto and Kakashi out.

* * *

The ride to the hospital took longer than Naruto expected—at least thirty minutes. When they arrived, it was to a scene he had expected, but was still surprised to see. There were ambulances everywhere, some with lights still beaming on the top. They weren't screeching the way Naruto expected them to. Instead, it seemed as if the commotion, if there was any before, was dying down. He saw quite a bit of reporters and such standing outside the hospital, but they were all talking amongst themselves, and packing things up.

Naruto wondered what the scene was like back in Gaara's building. Were there reporters waiting outside, trying to milk answers out of the authorities?

Now he, Kakashi, and Iruka walked towards the hospital entrance quickly. They had to park a block away, since the parking lot for the hospital was either filled up or closed. All Naruto knew was that they were denied entrance there.

Reporters instantly looked at them as they walked by, sizing them up to see if they were valuable people to interview. After a few moments they all shook their heads and went back to whatever they were doing.

Once they were inside the hospital, Naruto saw proof of the commotion that had been here hours before. There were people running around everywhere, and the front desk had at least ten people trying to speak to the four nurses running the station. The blonde heard Kakashi sigh in front of him.

"Wait here a moment." He said, walking ahead of them. He walked passed the front desk, and almost made it to the hallway entrance, when a woman called out to him. "Excuse me, sir! You aren't allowed down that way until you've signed in and—"

The woman stopped talking when the gray haired man held out what seemed to be a badge. Naruto blinked; when did Kakashi even take that out?

"I'm with the Hatake police department." Kakashi said solemnly. "Now if you'd just tell which wing the injured officers are being kept..."

The woman hesitated for a moment, before she shook her head and exited her station at the front desk, much to the dismay of the several people waiting behind it.

"Come, Naruto." Iruka said, moving to stand behind Kakashi.

"Who's this?" the nurse asked, pausing to stare at Naruto and Iruka.

Kakashi shook his head. "They're with me."

The woman narrowed her eyes at all of them, before shaking her head. "You're a little late then all of the others. The injured have been cared for, and the deceased are in the basement with Kurenai. She's the woman who—"

"I know Kurenai." Kakashi said, cutting her off. "Tell me the statistics. How many are dead."

"I can't tell you exact numbers. But I can tell you that the toll isn't high, considering the damages done to that building." The nurse said with a shake of her head. "Around to fifteen people dead, and maybe twenty are fighting for their lives right now."

Naruto's eyes widened. This woman spoke as if the damages weren't bad. Fifteen dead, and twenty dying? That sounded like a lot to the blonde.

"Of those still alive, can you tell me if any came from inside the building?" Kakashi asked lowly.

The nurse shrugged her shoulders. "I can't tell you any outside information like that. I can only give you a ballpark look on what goes on inside the hospital."

"Hmm." Kakashi nodded his head. "My friends and I will head to the Catastrophe Ward now. Will I need a pass?"

"That's what I came out here to give you." The woman said, giving him a strange looking card. "You must return it before you leave the building. Now do you need directions?"

"Not of everything is in the same place." Kakashi called out, already walking down the hall.

Naruto and Iruka scrambled to follow him.

"The Catastrophe Ward?" Iruka asked, concerned.

"Whenever there's an influx of patients coming in, severely injured, usually all from the same attack, they're all sent to the Catastrophe Ward."

Iruka hummed in understanding.

The Catastrophe Ward, it turned out, was simply an enormous room, lined with injured civilians and police officers on separate operating tables, and tubes tied to them. The room was a chorus of moans and doctors and nurses running around shouting at each other. There were a few people, obviously not a part of the bombing, standing beside struggling patients and holding their hands—possibly family members.

"We've lost another one!" a woman called, from the left side of the room. Like automations, two men who'd been resting against the wall came running towards the lost patient. One brutally unhooked the machines connected the man on the operating table and rolled the operating table out the row, while the other pushed a brand new table into the empty row, with a new patient in it. Then both men rolled the dead patient's table down the midway and disappeared into two flapping double doors.

Naruto gulped. It was like watching a war movie.

"Excuse me, sir!" a man called out, walking towards Kakashi. "Are you supposed to be in here? It's best if you don't block the hallway—"

"I'm with the police department." Kakashi said firmly. "I want to see Kurenai."

The man nodded his head. "You just head out those double doors and you'll find her on the last door to the right. Some of the other officers are there as well—"

"Oh my god, Kakashi—"

Kakashi turned round to face his partner without a thought, not even letting him finish. "What is it?" he asked urgently, taking Iruka's shoulder.

Iruka wasn't looking at him, instead he pointed towards a figure three tables down, on the other side of the room.

Naruto's eyes widened. Masashi Hatake lay there, a burned arm over his eyes, breathing deeply. The machine hooked up to him seemed to be giving him blood, and monitoring his heart rate.

Kakashi went over to his father in break neck speed, leaving Naruto and Iruka to scramble after him. The man who'd spoken to them before tried to call out to them, but gave up.

"Dad," Kakashi whispered, hovering a hand over the man's arm.

Masashi moved said arm and turned to look at the three of them. His eyes widened. "Son," he whispered back, holding his own hand to hold his sons.

Naruto thought he saw tears well up in the older man's eyes. Now that Naruto thought about it, Masashi had to be old, didn't he? He was the father of at least a thirty year old man. The head police man didn't look so old when he was interrogating the blonde, but now, with his eyes dim, and laying passively on an operating table, he looked ancient.

"I knew that…you owned the building." Masashi continued. "I feared you would have been there, somehow, to take some damage."

Kakashi shook his head. "I was outside, watching everything. I saw you go in. I thought I'd lost you…"

Masashi shook his head, staring at the ceiling with what seemed like wonder. "I thought I lost me too." He responded quietly.

There was silence between the three of them, before Iruka moved up, and spoke. "Sir, exactly what happened up there?"

Masashi opened his eyes, which he had closed a moment before. When his eyes landed on Iruka, he openly glared. "Couldn't you keep your squeeze at home, Kakashi?" he sneered.

Kakashi sighed exasperatingly and looked away. "You'd think that after facing death, you'd leave petty grudges aside—"

"I've faced death many times." The man said, waving his unburned hand. "You of all people know that. A few near-death encounters won't change my opinion of scum—"

"Stop it." Kakashi said—or rather whispered with a force that silenced his father.

Naruto looked between the three of them with wide eyes. Iruka had his arms crossed, and was looking away with a saddened expression, while the family members glared each other down. Naruto had only had a taste of the hate Masashi felt for his son's relationship, it seemed. The blonde didn't know the history between the three of them, but it seemed deep.

"Sir," Naruto started, feeling the need to end the silence. "exactly what happened up there? A-and where's Seichi?"

Masashi seemed to blink out of whatever state he was in, and turned to stare at Naruto. "Brat…" he stared with wide eyes, as if he hadn't noticed the blonde there before.

Before Naruto could say anything in response, Masashi shook his head an continued on, staring at the ceiling. "Seichi? That boy is should be with his grandparents on Sakura's side by now." He paused for a long time before he ran a bandaged hand through his hair. "As for what happened…He knew we were coming. I don't know how, but he knew we were coming. There was—a trap. Or something, I can't tell. The entire first line of men were knocked backwards, when the first shot was—"

"Wait, a minute." Kakashi said. "You're going to fast. What knocked them backwards? Where were they—"

"The first line ran upstairs, ahead of myself." He said, gesturing angrily. "And when I got there, I thought I saw a light—it was so bright—and then my men started screaming. And then the shootings started—they all panicked because they saw something. But then something started shooting back—like multiple machine guns—but how could one person be capable of that?" he looked at them in disbelief, as if he was still trying to find the answer, "I-I thought it was only one guy—so I ordered them to charge. I charged in with them, then there was another one of those white beams—but it was more like a bomb. It exploded and a bit of it went on my arm," he lamely lifted said arm, which was burnt to a painful looking redness. "And then, I was…knocked out—somehow. I don't know how." He looked away ashamed. "Next thing I know, I'm here, feeling pain all over my body, and finding out that my men took suicide jumps out that monster's damn window—"

He stopped talking, and put a hand to his face.

"Suicide jumps…" Naruto whispered, the image of all those men falling to their death before his eyes.

"That's what everyone is saying."

"So you aren't sure?" Naruto asked, confused.

Masashi shook his head. "The only people talking right now are those that were too far behind in the attack to have suffered more than a few burns and stray bullet wounds. Everyone who actually went into the room, besides myself, is dead."

Naruto's breath hitched. "So…no one can even say what happened for sure…" he said shaking his head. Naruto felt his throat close. Whoever Gaara was…he was smart. And pure evil. The blonde laughed bitterly. How was it that all evidence against him was reduced to nothing, when today was the day that he was supposed to get caught and taken to jail. He must have known. Something—or someone, must have tipped him off.

"They're saying that the deceased are in the room behind the double doors." Kakashi said softly. "We're going to go see them."

Masashi frowned. "I should be the one looking at them. Not stuck here, tied to these damned machines."

Kakashi shook his head. "You need your rest."

Masashi said nothing, "No. I want to see that murdering bastard's dead face for myself. It's the only way I'll recover mentally from this."

The three of them stared.

"What?" Naruto asked, dumbly, after several award moments of silence.

Masashi glared at him. "What do you mean _what_? I want to see him for myself."

"What are you saying?" Kakashi asked slowly. "Are you talking about Kaze?"

Masashi gave the three of them an exasperated look. "Sabako," he said slowly, "Is. Dead. I said out of everyone in the room, I was the only one who made it. That means the bastard is dead. It's been confirmed."

Naruto only stared.

_What?_

What was he _saying_? Yes, he understood that it would have been damn near impossible for Gaara to escape whatever the hell those explosions were, but the fact that Masashi was saying he was dead—

It just didn't add up.

"What do you mean it's been confirmed?" Naruto asked, coming closer to the older man. "How? You said everyone's is dead so—"

"It's called identifying bodies." The man said, as if talking to a slow child. "We know what our men looked like, what they were wearing before the blast. And we have countless data on how Sabako would look, hence, by process of elimination and the fact that there were no other civilians present at the other apartment besides us and the culprit, we have deduced that the slim, unarmed body that was burnt to a crisp, as some of my colleagues have told me with delicious detail, is indeed, Gaara Sabako Kaze."

Naruto took a step back, not getting everything that the man had just said,—"But how do you _know_? How do you know that there were no others in the apartment? Have you ever seen Gaara yourself?"

"We have photographs." Masashi said, looking at Naruto in disbelief. "Why are you so hesitant to believe that we have him? His body is in the pre-autopsy ward right down the hall. See for yourself." He began to sit up. "I'm going to come in with you."

"No;" Kakashi said, putting a hand to his father's chest. "You need your rest."

Masashi glared at his son. "I've been resting for the past three hours. I'm not going to let someone who isn't even a doctor tell me to stay put—"

"Then let your son tell you." Kakashi said roughly. "There's a reason they're keeping you here. You've been through a lot. I don't care how often you've been near death. What matters is that it's happened again, and you need to take necessary precautions before you can be mobile again."

Masashi only glared at his son. "What are you three, who have nothing to do with this, going to do when you see the bodies? You're like nosy civilians."

The gray haired man sighed, and looked at his father with solemn eyes. "I thought that you would be one of the bodies I would see, dead on a platter of metal. For me this is reassurance."

Masashi stared at his son for several moments, blinking, then opening his eyes wide. "And what about these two?" he said finally, pointing at Naruto and Iruka.

"Iruka is with me, for support. And Naruto has his own duties, as a civilian of this city."

Masashi raised an eyebrow, before scoffing. "Of course. Moral support, and a spectator." He looked like he would spit in a moment, but he just shook his head. "Go on then. Go look at bodies that mean nothing to you."

Iruka nodded his head slowly, like the trooper he was, following through with all of this craziness, and Naruto made a small noise of confirmation.

Together they left Kakashi's father and walked down the hall towards the double doors. When they passed through them, they saw a line of officers, injured and uninjured, standing against the wall. Some of them had their hands in their faces, in mourning, while others stared blankly ahead of them. Some of them looked at three of them as they walked down the hall, while others ignored them.

When they arrived to the last door, where the man-nurse said they'd find Kurenai, Naruto felt a small piece of his heart rise up to his throat. He swallowed to bring it back down.

Was Masashi telling the truth? Was Gaara really dead? Plastered on a table somewhere, burned to a crisp?

Naruto shook his head. Why couldn't he believe that?

Kakashi was the one who finally opened the door.

When the three of them walked inside, Naruto was half surprised to find a long row of operating tables, without tubes or any such operating mechanisms, all lined up to the end of the room, with obvious bodies on them, covered by bloodied sheets.

There was a woman at the center of the room, looking at an uncovered body and writing on a clipboard.

"Kurenai."

The woman looked up, "Kakashi."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the color of her eyes.

"You've brought friends?" she asked, staring at Naruto and Iruka with a mild but welcoming expression. "Or are they here to identify..." she finished, with her voice soft, serving as a prerequisite for probable future condolences.

Kakashi shook his head. "My partner," he said, briefly brushing Iruka's arm, "and a witness." he finished, inclining his head towards Naruto.

"Of course." the red eyed woman said, not delving any deeper to the information she'd been given. "So, is there someone in particular that you'd like to see? Or would you rather have a go at the unidentifiable?"

"Why are they unidentifiable?" Iruka asked, hesitantly. "We were given information that a very important criminal was identified here, so how can you be sure it's him when there are unidentified persons?"

"Quite a few of the victims were burned, but some were affected more than others." Kurenai responded lightly. "While one should consider the commonality of disfigurement and possible facial ambiguity when it comes to burns, it is another story entirely when someone is charred."

Naruto blinked. "Charred?"

"It's the worst effect of burning next to just disintegrating." Kakashi said with a shake of his head.

"Precisely." Kurenai crossed her arms and looked at the three of them with a small smile. "When a body burns from fire or extreme heat, they began to char; it's a blackening of their skin that turns it into a flaky exo-skin. The heat and flames lift the skin off the body and turn that skin into material weaker than a dead leaf. Underneath the skin is the thin film of ectoplasmic material that covers your organs. Once that itself is charred, the flames move on to the internals of the human body, blackening the—"

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Naruto said, putting a hand to his mouth. He only whispered it, but Kurenai stopped talking and looked at him with blank eyes.

"I apologize if the details are troubling," she said softly. "I only wish you to understand what you see. Once you understand, you might go past the phenomena of it all and focus on more important things."

Naruto blinked, taking his hand away from his face. "Right." he said lamely, putting his head down.

Kurenai nodded curtly before gesturing towards the row of people on metal tables hidden underneath sheets. "What will it be?" she asked.

Naruto wanted to speak up and say that he wanted to see Gaara, but Kakashi beat him to it.

"The unidentifiable." Kakashi said firmly.

"I don't see how that could do you any good, Kakashi. Especially considering you haven't been in the force for years."

Naruto started when Masashi came in from behind them, limping into the room with a tight frown on.

"D-dad." Kakashi hesitated, narrowing his eyes. "You should be resting."

"I've rested enough," he said walking past the three of them, making sure to bump Iruka on the way. "I want to see my fallen comrades. I'll appreciate it a way you were never capable of." he added over his shoulder.

Kakashi mumbled something under his breath, but stayed silent other than that.

"Kurenai." Masashi said, nodding his head. "Show them to me."

The woman eyed him with a level stare before she walked to one of the metal tables and moved to reveal the person underneath. "I'll start by revealing the unidentifiable, so both parties are satisfied." she said quietly. "There are four of these persons out of the fifteen dead." she said. Then she pulled the sheet of the first one.

Naruto felt like he was going to vomit. "Oh my God—"

It was like the woman had said. The man—or woman, who could even be _sure_?—was rendered a flaky blackness, burnt to a crisp the way a sausage would if left too long on the grill—

"The officers fought over this to be a man named Koda or another man named Hoda. Twins, they said. We know that both of them are dead but we don't know who is who." with that she revealed the body next to the other, and this body looked worse off than the first. It was as if it the man was flayed in a lighter fire; bits of bright, bloody, red patches littered his blackened face, and his mouth was open in a distraught scream, and it was as if the bones on his jaw had melted and curled the line of his mouth into an inhuman one.

"God...damn it." Masashi cursed under his breath.

From his position Naruto thought the man was fighting tears.

"Those two were new," he whispered. "Barely out of the training program. They were one of the first to open the door. Then the blast came and..." he didn't finish.

"A blast, sir?" Kurenai asked. "Did a fire immediately follow it?"

Masashi shook his head. "No. It was just a single blast. Like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was like a white light exploded before our eyes and when the light touched them, it burned them alive."

Kurenai was silent for a moment. "I've never heard anything like that before. At least not on such a small scale." she said finally. "These men are charred, and it's a state that results from constant flames engulfing the skin until it flakes. This takes several minutes. However, a blast without flames to follow afterwards, as you have said, suggests that this harm was done in less than a few seconds."

"That would have to mean that the blast was powerful enough, in that second, to do damage worth several minutes on fire."

"Precisely." Kurenai said softly. She traced a finger through the line of the second man's jaw. "I suppose it isn't uncommon considering this is an actual explosion, but to be able to conjure something like this, with a chemical that can have these effects in a single blast...that worries me. Something like that is meant to destroy the lives of the people that come into contact with it. Which is why I fear that those who have survived the blast," she turned to look at Masashi, "aren't spared the full effects."

"What are you saying..." asked Masashi gravely.

"I'm saying that a blast like this, having these consequences," she gestured towards the burnt body, "is most likely to have nuclear effects. Such as cancer."

Naruto heard Kakashi's breath hitch, and Iruka grabbed a hold of his arm. "Kakashi..." he said softly.

"Dad," Kakashi started, walking towards his father.

Masashi deliberately stepped away. "None of that. We don't know anything for sure—right?" He looked at Kurenai expectantly.

"Of course," she said lightly. "This is all just...speculation, after all. But to be fair, most accidents like this, due to chemicals ploys and such do tend to awaken cancer cells. So perhaps you're culprit was an accidental genius."

The three men said nothing.

Kurenai blinked calmly. "Or not."

Masashi shook his head. "I think you know who I most want to see, Kurenai." The head policeman said quietly.

Kurenai nodded and walked to the very last body in the room. The four men followed her.

Naruto gulped. The sheet the man was covered in was considerably bloodier than the rest, as if the officers had relentlessly shot at him until he was nothing but a bloody pulp.

"This man wasn't charred." Kurenai said softly, putting a hand on the edge of the sheet, getting ready to lift it. "However, if not for the ample evidence towards his identity, I would say he is even more unrecognizable than the rest."

With that, she pulled the sheet off of bloodied table, to reveal the body underneath.

And Naruto didn't think he'd be able to hold in the food he'd eaten earlier today any longer.

The body on the table didn't even have a _face_.

Unless, of course, a concaved bloodied mess could pass for one.

It was as if someone had repeatedly punched the man with hulk fists, or a bowling ball. Delicate strands of dull red hair stuck out from the top of the skull, while pink mush Naruto hesitated to admit was brain flesh littered the rest of it.

"As you can see," the red-eyed woman started calmly. "There are approximately one hundred bullet holes through this man's chest, including a gun of a higher caliber through his face. There is a catch however—"

"Hold on," Masashi said, not quite taking his eyes off of the mangled body. "A gun of a higher caliber? What does that mean?"

"Forgive me if my vocabulary isn't quite up to date with police force artillery. All I know is that the guns that caused this to his face, is not the same that caused these." She pointed to the obvious holes in the small man's chest.

Naruto wrinkled his nose at that. Now that he thought about it, the body they were looking at was quite small. Like a teenager's body. He didn't know why but he'd had the impression that Gaara would be taller, more built.

Masashi made a small noise. "That…doesn't make any sense. My men only brought one kind of gun up there. M9 assault weapons. No gun of ours can do that to someone's face—not with a single bullet anyway. Maybe after repeated shots to the face—"

"No." Kurenai said, shaking her head. "There is a lot you do not know about your victim," she said quietly. "The bullet holes on his chest left these marks," she said gesturing to the holes, "and often the actual bullets were still there." She added, picking at one of the wounds with a finger.

Naruto felt a shiver course through his spine as she dug deep into one of the holes.

"This one in particular," she said, with a bit of struggle as she dug deeper into the hole. She had to used the other hand to press on the man's chest as she reached in further and further into the wound, "was lodged deep enough that the extent of one bullet can be felt when you feel around the wound." She said. Finally, she seemed to pause, and in the next moment she pulled out dark glistening thing from the hole in the man's chest.

Naruto swallowed. It was a very small bullet.

"This bullet," Kurenai said, "no matter how many times you shoot at one place, "cannot cause this sort of damage."

Masashi visibly shook. "That…that would mean—"

"Exactly." Kurenai said.

Naruto was confused. Exactly what? What the hell were they talking about? When he looked at Kakashi and Iruka they seemed to understand as well. "What…what's going on?" he was forced to ask. "What does it mean?"

Kurenai blinked at him, seeming to forget the blonde was in the room. She nodded at him. "Say that you thought that the damage to this man's face was caused by multiple shots by the M9 assault gun, was it? You would have to ask yourself, what evidence proves this?"

Naruto blinked. Why did this woman talk like she was teaching a science class or something?

"Look at the size of this bullet." She said holding the bullet up. "If you look at it and still think that it is capable of doing this damage, you have to investigate it further. Masashi," she said, turning to look at the old man. "Would you say that this particular bullet has enough consistency to penetrate through a cement wall? A brick wall?"

The man nodded. "Those are meant to kill, yes."

She nodded her head, then, without warning, she lifted the head of the dead body, so that what would have been the chin was pressed against the chest. Naruto nearly peed on himself at the sound of dead bones flexing, breaking, and moving against brain mush. "As you can see," she said, putting a solid hand on a mass of red hair. "there are no exit wounds."

Naruto blinked. "No exit wounds?" So…

"It means that Kaze killed himself." Kakashi said quietly. "It means that, he planned a trap to kill all of these men, and then used his own powerful gun to shoot himself in the face, rendering him unrecognizable."

Naruto blinked. That…that didn't sound right. "Wait, " he said, shaking his head. "So, you're saying that this is really over then? Gaara goes out with a bang, killing all these people, and then kills himself?" he pointed to the body with a shaky finger. "Why did he have to shoot his face to make himself so unrecognizable? Why did all those people die in that apartment, when they were only facing a single man?"

"What are you trying to say, Naruto?"

"What I'm trying to say," Naruto said exasperatingly, "is that that man over there isn't him. Gaara is still alive."

His statement was followed, unsurprisingly by disbelief.

Iruka let out a nervous laugh, "What are you saying, Naruto? The evidence is right here. Kaze is dead—"

"No," Naruto said shaking his head. "He can't be. It just isn't possible. Gaara wasn't…he wasn't done yet." That was the only way he could think to put it. "Whoever that guy is, it isn't Gaara. It has to be some sort of…ploy or something, I can't—"

"You don't know what the hell you're saying." Masashi said angrily. "This has to be him. There was no one else in the room at the time but—"

"But how do you know that?" Naruto said, angrily. "Don't you understand? It just doesn't add up. We keep talking about how he was a criminal genius, and how he anticipated the attack, but do you really think he would have committed suicide when the going got tough like that? We keep saying how Gaara was incredibly skilled and intelligent but if the man on that table is really him then we've been wrong all this time—"

"Then so be it. Sabako wasn't as smart as we thought he was, and now he's dead. What you're saying doesn't make any damn sense." Said Masashi angrily. "We got our guy—"

"But we weren't wrong." Naruto countered angrily. "Gaara was smart, and he's not dead. How would you even know if this man is him for sure? It's only been a few hours. More tests need to be made, right?" Naruto asked, looking at Kurenai expectantly.

She nodded. "Of course there will be. And I have to say that I agree with you." She said to him. "The policemen who were here before based their conclusion on the simple fact that there couldn't have been anyone in the room with them. But they failed to recognize the possibility that—"

"There might have been someone else at the scene, using a different gun." Naruto finished for her, looking at Masashi with hard eyes. "And I think, if Gaara holds true to his reputation, he was in the room as well, using that guy," he pointed to the dead body on the table, "as a decoy."

Masashi made a sound like someone spitting. "Do you have _any_ idea what you're saying, boy? And you act like you know Sabako personally, or something. What makes you so sure that the guy on the table isn't him?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto stressed. "I'm just…it doesn't add up. Don't you get it? Gaara was smarter than that. He knows what he's doing, and we'll all be falling for his trap if we believe that this man is really him."

The people in the room stared at him in silence.

"You're making bold assumptions, Naruto." Kakashi said finally. "But I suppose everything is plausible for now. All we have to do is wait for the actual autopsy report. Kurenai?" he asked the red-eyed woman expectantly.

She nodded at him. "It will take up to a few weeks depending." She said. "I suppose we will start with finding out the exact point of death, what caused it, and so on."

Masashi sighed and looked away. "What the hell are we suppose to tell the press until then?"

"Just let them speculate until we can finally give them the facts." Kakashi said.

"Or," Iruka said in disbelief, "you _tell_ people what happened, and ask them to keep a look out for this Gaara person—if you find out it isn't really him on the table—"

"Tell people what we're dealing with?" Masashi said, rivaling Iruka's disbelief. "Do you have any idea what kind of panic that will raise—"

"No more than the uprising that will come if you don't tell them what the hell happened in that building—"

"We'll make something up." Masashi said, raising his voice. "There was a plan to tell everyone that this man," he pointed to the redhead on the table, "was Sabako, and that a murderer had finally been captured at the valiant cost of several men, but now that this punk," he pointed to Naruto, "has raised the question of whether or not it really is him, we have to postpone—"

"Oh, don't make it seem like the postponing is all Naruto's fault. You wouldn't have been able to confirm any of this in the press before the final autopsy report anyway."

Masashi growled at his son. "What the hell do you know? You haven't worked with us for years—"

"That doesn't mean I forgot everything I learned. Doesn't mean I don't keep tabs on what goes on." Kakashi replied exasperatingly. "I still have friends on the inside. I know what's happening in the department, what cases have been dropped, how many men are still missing, and how many have been caught."

Masashi openly snarled before he looked away. "That doesn't matter. This doesn't concern you anymore—"

"There was an attack, on the building I own." Kakashi said, looking at his father incredulously. "There are people who will be out of an apartment for days, maybe weeks, until this gets done. And do you know who they're going to look to for answers? Their landlord. Even if I had nothing to do with this police force you'd have to involve me anyway." He finished with a small swipe of his hand that Naruto couldn't understand, until he saw the grey haired man clench the fist at his side.

Masashi said nothing in response for a while, then he shook his head angrily, and turned to leave the room. "Contact me as soon as you receive the autopsy report." He said before he left.

Kakashi let out a loud sigh when his father left the room, and cleared him throat. "I suppose we should take our leave as well." He said nodding to Kurenai.

The woman nodded back, before she turned to Naruto. "Something tells me that you have an investment to this case that the police force won't let you exercise."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I mean," she said with a tiny smile. "Hatake and his men will probably try to keep you as far from the case as possible now. So…if you want to be contacted once I have the autopsy reports, perhaps it would be best if you left me with your contact information. Hatake and his men won't contact you otherwise."

Naruto's eyes widened with understanding. She was right. Now that Seichi was out of his hands and he had no contact with Sakura or Sasuke, he had absolutely no inside connections with the police. Kakashi seemed to be on his side for the most part, but even he seemed to be unwanted in the force.

"M-my contact information? That sounds good actually…But…why do you care? I'm just another civilian…"

Kurenai smiled at him. "You and I both know that you aren't. I don't know how, but I have a feeling you will be an essential part to solving this…mystery, I suppose."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "Uhm…"

"Don't worry," she said holding a hand up. "I have a knack for these kinds of things. Besides, you are doing more investigative work than Hatake seemed willing to do. I suppose his pride, and the fact that he lost so many valuable people makes him unwilling to believe that this man might not be Mr. Kaze It would mean that everything was for nothing."

Naruto nodded reluctantly. He could understand that, he supposed.

"I can also give you information as well." Kurenai said nodding to Kakashi. "It seems the police have an aversion to you as well."

Kakashi gave a light smile. "Thank you. Although you and I both know I would have gotten the information either way."

Kurenai smiled back before she raised her clipboard and waved her pen. "Why don't we start with you Naruto? Last name and contact information."

Naruto cleared his throat when before he told her, and waited when Kakashi told her his.

Then the three of them said their goodbyes and made their way out of the hospital. They passed the Catastrophe Ward before doing so, so Kakashi could say farewell to his father.

When they were back inside the car, Kakashi sighed against the wheel. "There's so much work to be done now. People are out of apartments, and I'm going to have to dig into my savings for reparations…"

"We could use mine too…" Iruka said softly, touching his partner's shoulder.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, that's fine. We're lucky enough that it was only one floor on one building. At least yours is in once piece."

"Do you think they'll allow people back inside the neighborhood again?" Naruto asked from the backseat.

Kakashi nodded his head. "They'll let us into Iruka's building. Not mine. But you live in Iruka's right?"

Naruto nodded, and straightened himself in the chair. "Hey, Kakashi," Naruto said softly. "Do you think…I can come visit you guys upstairs sometimes? I don't have that many friends in the neighborhood. None at all actually…and I thought since we both know about…well…what's going on…maybe we could—"

"You're welcome upstairs anytime, Naruto." Iruka said, cutting the blonde off. "You know that."

Naruto gave a half smile back. "Thank you." He said gratefully. "Thank you so much."

Both Iruka and Kakashi nodded back at him, with the gray haired man looking at him through the rear view mirror and Iruka actually turning to face him.

"Alright then," Kakashi said, starting the car. "Let's go home."

* * *

The call came almost three weeks later.

Naruto had been sitting in his kitchen/living room (the space was so small you couldn't really distinguish between the two) when his cellphone rang. It was four in the afternoon, so he thought it was his grandmother. He ignored it the first few rings, but gave in afterwards, thinking of the consequences that would come if he didn't answer. He was surprised when he saw a number he didn't recognize on the display screen.

"Hello?" he said warily, when he picked up.

"Naruto, good afternoon. It's Kurenai."

Naruto's eyes widened and he stumbled when he stood up suddenly. "K-Kurenai? What's going on?"

"Please, relax," he could hear her chuckle from the other end. "There is nothing "wrong" per se. Although I've finished the autopsy and the results are...interesting."

"I-is that so." Naruto gulped.

"Yes. I've already spoken to Kakashi, and he's on his way to your apartment. I hope you aren't busy…"

"U-uh, not at all, I—"

"I hope you don't mind, but Hatake and the rest of his crew will be here as well. They'll be arriving in thirty minutes, so tell Kakashi to hurry."

"O-of course." The blonde said quickly. "But can I ask you one question?"

"Yes?"

"Was the body really Gaara?"

There was a small pause, before another light chuckle on the other hand. "Far from it." She said lightly. "See you soon." Then she hung up.

Naruto stared at the receiver of his cellphone for long moments in disbelief, before he sighed and shook his head. Right then. He had been right. That wasn't Gaara. So who was it then? He supposed he would find out today.

* * *

"And the men of the hour have arrived." Kurenai said lightly, when Kakashi and Naruto entered the autopsy ward past the Catastrophe Ward. It wasn't a Catastrophe Ward anymore. The many injured that were lined up were gone. It was a large, white room now, with enormous windows. The autopsy room was slightly different as well. Instead of many, there was only one table, with one man on it.

Naruto grimaced when he saw the site of it. It had obviously been frozen somehow, to prevent rotting. The once bright red flesh was dull pinkish color, and the once black burnt skin was now a strange gray. The very little unmarred skin was almost blue. It also seemed as though the body had been ripped open somehow. There was a very blunt split at the man's chest, and there were other cuts around his face—

"Do you mean to tell me, that you made us wait thirty minutes, for _them_?" Masashi said, pushing himself off the wall to glare at the two who just came in. "What are they even doing here?" he exclaimed angrily.

"We will now begin." Kurenai said, ignoring the question completely. "If you two would just stand right here, please?" she said pointing to the side of the operating table, right across from Masashi and the others.

When Naruto walked further into the room, he found that Shikamaru, Chouji, and Neji were there, as well as some other officers that he couldn't recognize.

"We will start with the thesis." Kurenai said, squeezing between two police officers so she could get to the dead body on the table. "This man, is not Gaara Sabako Kaze."

There was a hiss, and Naruto would bet it was Masashi.

"Mr. Kaze was 6'1, while this man, based on virtual reconstruction of his legs, and in relation to the size of his head, couldn't have been more than 5'9." She looked up and stared into the eyes of everyone in the room, as if waiting to see if anyone had questions. "Also," she continued. "Based on the information I was given, Mr. Kaze was a brunette." She pulled a few locks of the man's hair. "This man is a natural redhead." She said, before brushing the hair back down with her fingers. "An interesting shade of red, too. Quite possibly one of the rarest natural colors I've seen." She stood up straight and walked to the side of the body. "That's only the basic information I found about this person." She said solemnly, before she put a hand to the dead chest, and pulled either sides of the ribcage apart.

Naruto's eye twitched, and teeth ached to the sounds of flesh being separated like that. He was right when he thought there was a huge cut in the middle of not-Gaara's chest. Kurenai seemed to have made an incision right from between his breasts to the base of his stomach.

When Kurenai split the two parts all the way, exposing dark ribcages, and a foul smelling guck inside the man's body, she began to speak again. "Untrained eyes might not be able to see it, but—"

"That's impossible…"

Everyone turned to look at Shikamaru, who had spoken. "Those incisions…they can't be as neat as that—not when dealing with a human body. Unless, of course you cleaned up the—"

"No, I didn't," Kurenai said, pleased that someone was catching the gist of her explanation before she even began. "As you can see," she said, outlining the edges of the cuts she made, "there are no jagged edges, or hanging flesh. This is simply because this man, whoever he is, has had the exact incisions made on his body before. This is no real feat, considering many individuals have surgeries, although it made me wonder what kind of surgery he had to have to make such a large incision in his chest. Naturally I sought to find out, and I found something…alarming."

"What?" Masashi asked when Kurenai's pause lasted several moments.

"You don't see it?" Kurenai said, as she outlined the sides of the flesh. "The skin here?" she looked at Shikamaru expectantly. When the man shrugged at her she frowned, disappointed. "The skin and the flesh here, is unnatural. Fake, for a lack of a better term. Or perhaps manufactured…" she trailed off.

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked slowly.

"I mean what I said. The skin around here is fake. Also…" she reached up to what was left of the man's nose. "This was also manufactured. The nasal bone was tempered with and reformed to create a new nose. This man was also wearing contacts. They'd melted into his eyes due to extreme heat, but I was able to uncover it. I'm fairly sure that this man had brown eyes, while Mr. Kaze's eyes were green."

"What color were the contacts?"

Kurenai smiled knowingly. "Green."

Shikamaru hissed and looked away.

Naruto blinked, he felt like he was piecing things together, but he wasn't sure. "So…this man," he said pointing to the body. "Do you think he was trying to imitate Gaara?"

"Fairly sure." She said with a nod of her head. "Although I don't know why he did not dye his hair as well, if he really wanted to imitate the man—"

"He wouldn't do that." Shikamaru said. "He needed to look as much like Kaze so that when he was caught, he could pass for him, but not so much that when he walked around in society he would be spotted and taken down."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. That made sense. Did that mean that all those times Naruto thought he spotted Gaara, it had been this man? He found that hard to believe, but it seemed to make sense…

"What would be his motive for all this?" the blonde asked. "Why would he be covering for Gaara like this?"

"I don't think this man is covering for anyone." Masashi spat. "He's another one of Sabako's damn admirers, running around the country and starting trouble in the name of the most infamous murderer in Mushroom City."

Naruto blinked. "Does that mean…"

"The real Kaze was never involved in this case at all. We were dealing with another one of his damn imitations. We get these at least once a year. Only this guy went above and beyond all the others…"

Naruto shook his head slowly. "Wait…that…" he paused. He didn't really have a counter for that statement…but could this really all have been due to one wannabe? The more he thought about it, the more impossible it seemed.

"I…I really don't think that's all there is to it." He said carefully.

The other policemen looked at him with raised eyebrows while Masashi openly glared.

"It's just," Naruto continued, "there are too many things involved for it to be just this one guy. What about Sasuke? He's still missing. And Sakura—"

"Obviously Sasuke spotted this man, and thought it was Gaara, so he went on his own trying to take him down—"

"And where is Sasuke now?"

"We don't know the answer to that yet." Shikamaru said. "Once it gets out that this man was a false Kaze, and that he's dead, if Sasuke is still alive he'll come out of hiding, if not, than this man has probably killed him already."

Naruto frowned at how blunt the Shikamaru was being. "And Sakura?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "She went looking for Sasuke. That doesn't change the possibility that this man could have been the mastermind of this entire thing."

"And what about the bullet that your men weren't using in the attack?" Naruto said, looking at Masashi. "What about the fact that this guy was shot by someone else in the room, someone you guys didn't see?"

"About that," Kurenai said, raising a hand. "What ever did this to his face, was something that came from below." She said gesturing towards the disfigured face. "Do you see the way the flesh slants upwards? This gun—although I believe it to be more of a grenade type thing, was dealt from below, and the only really plausible way that could have happened is if he held the weapon in his own hands, and shot himself."

"But didn't people start shooting him before then?" Naruto exclaimed. "Are you saying that this man, who was shot _multiple_ times in the chest, found it in him to shoot himself in the face?"

"Now that the kid mentions it—"

"I have a counter to that as well." Kurenai said. She pressed against the dead man's chest. "Just as his nose was remanufactured, the bones of his breasts were as well. Not only so that they resembled those of a man with a broader chest, but he also replaced them with metallic chest plates. Also," she took a hold of one arm, "after feeling around the rest of his limbs, I'm certain that the they were also tempered with. This entire arm, unlike the bones of his breasts, was replaced with a sort of bendable wooden material. I tested it for strength with a saw but the material was like rubber. It didn't break, but it did bend. The advantage to this, I suppose, was the lack of nerve endings to—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Masashi said, raising a hand. "I'm not following you at all. This guy was made out of…wood?"

Kurenai smiled. "I wouldn't really put it that way. I'm saying he somehow replaced his ligaments with earthly elements, such as wood and metal. I'm not sure how he did it…It's actually quite fascinating—I've never seen anything like it—"

"So…this guy…is he even…" Naruto hesitated, "…real?"

"Imagine someone lost both arms and both legs and had them replaced with prosthetics." Kurenai said. "Very, good prosthetics." She as smiling again, as she lifted a leg. "Each part was handled with perfection. I imagine he was able to walk and move freely, like any other individual. I also suspect that he did this to himself..."

"That…I'm sorry but that doesn't make any sense."

Kurenai nodded at the group of men with a small smile. "I understand this is a lot to take in, but once you look past the phenomena of it all, it really is simple. You were dealing with an intelligent man. Copycat or not."

"I don't think making yourself into a wooden robot makes you intelligent." Neji said, speaking for the first time.

Kurenai smiled. "I'm not giving any positive regard to this man, if that's what you think." She started. "Not to his obvious moral incapability…I'm simply saying that he's done something…amazing. This the work of someone with a brilliant and unstable mind."

"Anyone who wants to follow in Kaze's footsteps is insane." Shikamaru said bluntly.

"How do we even know for sure that he was trying to imitate Gaara, then?" Chouji asked. "What if he was just a crazy murderer guy?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that…" Kakashi said lightly.

"But we still have to remember," Shikamaru spoke up, "the mystery of Kaze only rekindled after we looked through Sasuke's files and found that he'd been researching him, looking for clues on how to find him—"

"But he still could have been mistaken." Masashi said. "He could have found this guy, and thought that he was Sabako—"

"Yeah, but how is that even possible?" Naruto said, "I'm sorry, but if I knew what Gaara looked like and just saw this person on the street, I wouldn't say he's Gaara—"

"What the hell do you know, brat?" Masashi snarled. "The only inkling you have to what he looked like is his blasted face—"

"Yeah, but red hair, and his height. Sasuke couldn't have just seen this guy and though "oh this must be Gaara", there must have been something else."

"And what are you suggesting that something else was?" Shikamaru asked lightly.

When Naruto gave him no response, the man sighed.

"Do you see? We have nothing here but a few assumptions and inclinations, but no facts. It's like a mystery on top of a mystery."

There was silence around the room.

Naruto crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Something wasn't _right_. He knew something was missing. He was overlooking something—but what?

He tried to piece things together in his mind.

This person on the table was a copy-cat of Gaara. How did they know that? Because of the contacts, and the way the man killed people? That really wasn't much to go on, considering a lot of people wore contacts these days, and the killings weren't _completely_ like Gaara's…

And there was that letter at Ino's murder scene…

_Imposter a new you..._

Did this mean that this man was Ino's killer as well? Naruto could believe that he supposed…But then that would mean that Gaara—or at least this Gaara copy-cat, had been involved with Sasuke after all, right? It would mean that this whole thing with Sasuke making a mistake and thinking this was the real Gaara was the truth after all. But then…how could Sasuke have thought of that in the first place? What made him think that this man was Gaara? Something must have happened…

It certainly didn't have to do with the way this imposter looked. Because Gaara was a brown haired, tall individual. It would have had to be something this man _did_, that made Sasuke feel it was his duty to catch him…

What if…what if Sasuke didn't even go look for this man willingly? What if he was kidnapped or something, and somehow framed so that it seemed like he was looking for Gaara?

No, Naruto thought, shaking his head, that didn't make any sense either. He remembered Sasuke talking about a really special case. A case that would change everything.

Naruto closed his eyes hard and thought. Alright then. Say that this man really was an imposter, and somehow Sasuke realized that he was trying to imitate Gaara. Then what?

Naruto knew he was missing something. But what was it? It had to do with the way the man looked. Red hair…the green contacts that covered brown eyes…the whole wooden thing. It was that part that was striking him the most, the part about _reconstruction of the human body_—

Naruto blinked his eyes open.

Then it hit him.

And it hit him _hard_.

"Oh my God."

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked hesitantly, "You look like you've seen a ghost…" he trailed off almost seriously, and looked at the blonde with cautious eyes.

Naruto half gasped before he started speaking. "There was a website." He started quietly. "I-I was looking for information about Gaara's school. And there was this…this list, of all the victims—the one's he killed. And there was this one guy—valedictorian, red hair, and light brown eyes, a-and there was like, a statement on the bottom of his picture. It was like a statement about what he wanted to do in life. It was something like…" Naruto trailed off, thinking hard. What was that word? "Neo…neo…eli..ebli…"

"What are you trying to get at kid?" Masashi asked impatiently.

"It had something to do with dead people." Naruto said urgently. "L-like those people who make people look nice for funerals—but it was something different, something weird and _creepy_—"

"Neo-embalmination?" Kurenai asked with wide interested eyes.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed. "He was talking about that, and when I looked it up it was so—"

"Strange?" Kurenai finished for him, and for some reason her face was too amused and too interested for Naruto's comfort. "Yes, it's a sort of cult thing, I suppose. Practiced in the early 1900's by embalmers and mad scientists until it was officially declared a banned practice—"

"I'm sorry, but what the hell does this have to do with anything?" Masashi exclaimed, angrily.

Naruto blinked, looking at the chief of police with large eyes. "It's just that…the name of the person in the photograph…the wannabe neo-embalmer…was Sasori Akasuna."

Naruto looked at Kakashi and waited for him to understand.

Kakashi looked back at the blonde with wide eyes and Naruto could see the exact moment when it clicked.

"You mean…oh my God." He whispered gravely.

"What the hell is going on!" Masashi shouted, smacking his hands against the wall.

Naruto turned to look at him. "I had my suspicions about Gaara living in the apartment across from mine ever since I went to Sakura's apartment and you guys," he gestured towards Neji and Chouji, "debriefed me about him…that day Seichi, Sakura's son, told me that he saw someone who looked just like the picture you'd given me of Gaara except with red hair…" Naruto paused then, because he'd forgotten about that particular detail. "But the day after that I went to Kakashi and Iruka's room upstairs to ask the name of the person who lived in the apartment across from me…and Iruka told me the name was Sasori Akasuna…"

The rest of them stared at Naruto for a long time before Chouji spoke. "Wait…the same guy who was killed by Gaara in that school massacre is the same guy who lived in that apartment. This guy right here?" he pointed lamely to the man on the table.

"No…" Shikamaru said gravely, "It means that…" he paused and looked into the distance with a hard look. "Did Gaara actually steal that man's identity?" he asked, looking around the room.

Naruto exhaled harshly, "That's what I thought in the beginning. I-I thought I had it figured that Gaara was going around pretending to be some guy he killed…"

"And you don't think that anymore…" Kakashi continued lightly.

Naruto shrugged lightly. "I don't know. I just can't believe that he's dead."

"Well believe it." Masashi said, looking almost glad, "If that's the case then this _is_ Sabako. It suddenly all makes sense. It wasn't a man obsessed with being Sabako and trying to somehow become him, it was Sabako trying to mask his identity by becoming someone else—"

"Someone who's no longer alive, so double identity wouldn't have even been a problem—" Shikamaru said, looking back at the head police with a half smile.

"That would mean that this guy is Kaze." Kakashi staring down at the frozen body.

"Except for one thing." Kurenai said, looking at the three of them with amusement. "The blood types."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "What about the blood types?"

"Gaara was O negative. The blood in this body was AB positive."

Shikamaru cursed under his breath. "Fucking hell."

"Hold on a minute," Masashi said raising a hand. "What about the blood types? If this guy was able to reconstruct his limbs why wasn't he able to…I don't know, change his blood type."

"Because it's impossible." Kurenai said simply. "Even if you somehow successfully transfused blood into the system, which is impossible because O negative blood types can only receive from other O negatives, the blood would simply mix in with the rest, and the heart will continue to pump the original blood. You can't change your blood your blood type. Not to mention the eyes. The original eye color of this body was brown. Mr. Kaze's is green."

"Well, maybe he changed his eyeballs or something!" Masashi cried desperately.

Kurenai half smiled. "Although that's more possible than changing his blood type, it's still quite unlikely…"

Masashi wiped a hand through his hair. "Damn it." He said angrily. "We're going nowhere with this. We're right back to square one."

Kurenai nodded to him. "I understand your frustration, although I admit this is very fascinating. Whether this person is Mr. Kaze or not, he's obviously done this on purpose—confusing you. Now that I've received more information on who this man could be—Sasori Akasuna was it?—I will gather information on him and compare it to the body here. If what I have of this body matches up to the details of Mr. Akasuna, I suppose we can assume that it is him—"

"You're forgetting one detail though." Kakashi said. "Sasori's dead."

Kurenai smiled at him. "I remember that. But it's still possible that perhaps he isn't dead after all. If Naruto's mention of Mr. Akasuna's interest in neo-emblamination is correct, then the idea that he's still alive is more plausible than you think."

"What the hell is neo-embalmination?" Masashi asked.

"Like I said, it's a very old practice. Banned now. But let's just say that all of this reconstruction of limbs makes sense, now that I know that neo-embalming is involved…" she trailed off and looked at Naruto.

Naruto blinked back before looking away nervously.

"Then we're stuck again." Neji said. "We don't know who this person is. We don't know where Sasuke or Sakura is. It's like we're further behind now than we were before."

"Only Gaara can do this…" Shikamaru said softly. "Or at least someone like him…He knows what is, what was, what will be. He knows what should happen for him to get what he wants…and he knows how to make those things happen…"

"You make him sound like a god." Neji scoffed.

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders.

"Are you saying you think Sabako is a part of this after all?"

The detective shrugged again. "When Kaze was on the loose before, he didn't shroud himself in mystery like this. The clues to finding him were always obvious. It was like he had no interest in hiding. But we still had trouble finding him. Why? Because he knew we would ignore the obvious clues. He knew we'd be looking for complicated, things. He knew how to play us. And now, when we look for obvious signs, he shrouds them in mystery and impossible puzzles."

"You didn't answer my question…" Masashi said.

Shikamaru sighed. "Yeah. I think Gaara has everything to do with this."

"And I think he's still alive." Naruto said, deciding to speak up. "I don't know who this guy is," he pointed to the man on the table, "maybe it's a decoy, or an imitation, or whatever, but he definitely has something to with Gaara."

"And what makes you think your opinion matters in any of this?" Neji asked raising an eyebrow. "It's illegal to involve a civilian in an investigation anyway."

Naruto hesitated, but Kakashi spoke for him. "Naruto's just as much a part of this case as we are. He doesn't need to involve himself in the gritty things, but the least we can do is keep him informed. His friends are missing after all."

Naruto nodded his appreciation and turned to the rest of the group. "What do we do now?" he asked lightly.

Shikamaru ran a tired hand through his hair. "The media is next." He said with a shake of his head. "We have to come up with something to cover up the whole building incident so the speculators are satisfied. The truth is too confusing for us to bring out to the public. And maybe, we'll have a sort of advantage if Gaara watched the news and thinks we've got it all wrong or something." He ended lamely. It was obvious he knew that wasn't likely. The detective then left his place at the end of the operating table. "For now…we we'll wait for the results of the…" He looked at Kurenai.

"The comparisons between Mr. Akasuna and this body." She completed for him.

Shikamaru nodded lazily and made his way out of the room. Chouji hesitated, but followed afterwards. Masashi sighed and made a move to walk out as well. "Until next time then," he said nodding to Kurenai.

Naruto looked at Kakashi with solemn eyes and Kakashi stared back. Without a word to each other they exited the room as well.

* * *

Channel Twenty Seven News at 5:00

_And in breaking news we've finally received information on the tragic event in a small urban town just miles from the infamous Mushroom City. It's been nearly two months now, since building 1313 was quote, unquote "attacked, by terrorists", but now officials confirm that it was simply the work of a psychotic individual by the name of Damien Voltaire. _

_There were complaints about strange chemical smells coming from Mr. Voltaire's room, and officers found the complaints urgent enough to bring a squad of men to investigate. It turns out that what they found in the apartment was worse than they feared. Mr. Voltaire was in the processes of making crude nuclear devices. No one knows what he planned on doing with them, but keep in mind that this man was a foreigner so perhaps there was a terrorist mentality there. Rest assured however, this man is dead, killed by the gunshots of valiant officers, many of whom were killed that fateful day._

_The mass for the fallen officers will be held later this week in the Botanical Gardens south of…—_

Naruto turned off Iruka's television.

Then he sighed.

Two months.

Or at least, almost two months.

Iruka's and Kakashi's room was filled with papers full of research he'd done about Gaara, thanks to Iruka's computer and printer. He'd never been so determined to solve a mystery like this in his life. He felt the way he did when Sasuke ran away, and would stop at nothing to find him. Only this was different. This wasn't only about finding a friend; this was about taking down a sick individual.

The comparison from Kurenai had not yet arrived, but he already knew the answer. It wasn't Gaara who was dead on the operating table. Gaara was still on the loose somewhere. And Naruto knew that in order to find him, he just needed to know more about him.

He held a sheet of paper in his hands. It had the address of the Institute for the Mentally Damaged, and the information on Kabuto Yakushi, Gaara's old psychiatrist, who, with a little research, Naruto found still worked at the hospital.

The blonde was going to pay him a visit.

* * *

End of Chapter

**16,400 words!**

Author's Notes

Oh, what do we have here? AN UPDATE? I haven't seen one of those since…It's been a while. :)

Alright guys, this is the longest chapter yet. I hope the constant speculation between the characters didn't bother you, but I wanted you guys to be kind of immersed in the mystery, I want you to be trying to solve the mystery just like the characters in the stories. I hope I've kept your interest, and I really hope no one has forgotten this story! There's still so much left!

Thank you for reading, and please review! :D

And kick my ass in your reviews for taking so long to update, but university is a bastaaard! Don't go to college guys, it sucks. (just kidding; stay in school, and all that.) Later.


	10. The Impostered Detective

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter 10: _The Impostered Detective  
_

* * *

"…and you've done research to make sure of this?" Kakashi asked, looking at Naruto with wary eyes.

The blonde nodded his head for the tenth time, crossing his arms to further make his point. "Yeah, I'm sure. It said so on the website."

Kakashi sighed and looked distantly to his left. "It's not that I don't trust you, Naruto. It's just…" he trailed off, and he furrowed his brows almost angrily.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow, and leaning patiently on the door of Kakashi's apartment.

"It's just that," the policeman continued, "I dismissed Gaara as a temperamental teenage boy when I first heard about him and when spent the little time I did on the case…But now that I know more about him…more of what he's capable of, I can't help but think that every move we make, whether it is to capture or understand him, is completely futile."

Naruto let his eyes dim. "Yeah, I know that feeling."

Kakashi looked up to meet his eyes. "So you see, then." He said. "You see why I'm hesitant to just let you go like that."

Naruto nodded his head. "Yeah, I get it. But whether it's futile or not, I still want to do this."

"What about the possibility that Kaze is watching you, following your every move, maybe even listening in—" he raised a hand when Naruto opened his mouth to interrupt, "I know it sounds impossible, but after what we've heard—"

"I don't think it's impossible," the blonde said, almost raising his voice. "We have absolutely no idea what we're dealing with; _anything_ is possible. Especially with what's happened so far."

Kakashi nodded his head, glad that he and the blonde seemed to be on the same page. "There's one thing that keeps ringing in my head though…" he said quietly, "something Shikamaru said."

Naruto nodded to the older man, waiting for him to continue. He un-leaned against the door while he was at it, in his attentiveness.

"He knows what was…what is…and what will be…" Kakashi whispered. He looked at the ground for long moment before he cleared his own throat and looked at Naruto. "I'd roll my eyes to something like that, but for some reason…" he looked down again, "what he said seemed to ring some truth into me. It's as if Kaze knows our every move…doesn't it?" he looked up in question, and found Naruto staring sadly back.

"Yeah." He replied. "And to be honest it scares the shit out of me."

Kakashi gave him a small smile, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. "Speaking of that," he started, "I wanted to ask…Why are you doing this, Naruto? What do you expect to get from all of this?"

Naruto visibly hesitated, widening eyes at the question before blinking and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I…it's…" he frowned, looking for the words. "I just feel like…there are people I care about who are affected by this…" he eyes narrowed then, "people who've I've fought for, fought with…loved, and hated. And just five years ago I would have busted my balls to get them out of any trouble they found themselves in…" he closed his eyes and sighed. "Ever since my mother ran off with some guy while I was in high school, I guess I've been sort of…I don't know…less motivated. Then I graduated high school, with grades too low to go anywhere I wanted, do anything I wanted to do, so I got some lame job, and watched as all my friends became more successful than I did…" he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I've kind of lost myself since then."

"And this case is getting you back on your feet." Kakashi finished for him.

The blonde gave him a non-committing smile. "I guess I had a sort of…epiphany. I know I have to be a part of this case; I can't just sit back and wait for my friends to be found—not when I would have taken upon myself to find them only years ago, you know?" he ran a hand through his hair. "And I have to admit, " he continued softly, "Gaara, he…interests me…"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and Naruto shook his head.

"I just mean…everything about him is just…I've never met anyone like him before."

"Well, you've never met him." Kakashi said plainly.

Naruto hesitated. "Y-yeah but…can we even know that for sure?" he asked softly. "He knows what was what is, and what will be, after all. For all I know, I see him all the time."

The blonde said it in a joking manner, so Kakashi gave him a small smile in return, "I suppose you're right."

Naruto grinned back, and they stood there for a short comfortable moment before Kakashi cleared his throat. "I suppose you'll be on your way now…"

Naruto lost his grin, and nodded his head. "Yeah."

"And you know the way?"

"Got the directions right here," he said waving a folded sheet of paper. "It's at the end of Mushroom City, so it's a ways away. Like three trains and a few buses…" he trailed off and looked at the paper to make sure.

"Naruto." Kakashi said, bringing the blonde back to his attention.

"Hmm?"

"Take my car."

Naruto stopped looking at the sheet of paper and looked up with wide eyes. "What?" he asked dumbly.

"Take my car," the ex-policeman repeated, smiling. "Or rather Iruka's—but he won't miss it."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. He'd seen Iruka whack-a-mole Kakashi upside the head more than once after the man claimed Iruka wouldn't have problem. "A-are you sure? Iruka—"

"If Iruka has a problem with it, it won't be you he blames. I'll…distract him if he gets riled up about it."

Naruto stared hard at the gray haired man, before the implications of a "distraction" caught up with him. He felt his face heat up in record time. "U-uh, w-well then. I guess…uhm…thank you." He finished lamely.

Kakashi nodded his head. "No problem."

"Before I go, though," Naruto said, looking bashful. "I have to go online again, and print out directions—for car instead public transportation this time."

Kakashi shook his head. "You're running Iruka and I out of paper, Naruto."

Naruto opened his mouth to apologize, but Kakashi raised a hand and smiled.

"I'm only playing with you. If Iruka and I were worried about printer paper we wouldn't let you do this in our apartment in the first place. Just do what you need to do."

Naruto was going to say something in return, but when he found he had nothing to say, he simply nodded his gratitude.

* * *

It ended up being a one and a half hour drive, an hour less than what Voogle Directions promised taking public transportation would take. It wasn't that Mushroom City was far from his apartment, it was just that he had to drive to the very end of the city to arrive to his destination, and said city was like a very long island.

He'd stayed on the highway the entire time, so he didn't have a chance to nostalgically look at the streets he used to walk to get around. He only got off the highway at the very last exit, and took the local route across an unfamiliar part of Mushroom City to the Mental Institution he'd researched.

It was the Institution for the Mentally Damaged. It wasn't an asylum—they stressed that in their website—it was a place where people "voluntarily" admitted themselves to psychiatric care. If it wasn't voluntary, then they could be "forced" to sit down with psychiatrists and get help for their mental dilemmas. Everywhere he looked, Naruto read that the Institute for the Mentally Damaged didn't start with a good rep. Most of the people admitted killed themselves because of poor cell security, or simply didn't get better after psychiatric visits, but after a reform bill passed in '79, for the remodeling of psychiatric practice in mental institutions, the place got better.

Naruto could park his car fairly close to the building, which looked about five stories high from his position on the ground. It was a white, lean structure that towered gloomily despite its color. It was probably because of how terribly depressing today was. It had rained earlier, so the left over clouds were still covering the sun which had yet to make an appearance all day.

Naruto made his way into the building hesitantly. He suddenly realized that he had no idea how he was going to end up contacting Kabuto Yakushi in the first place. Would he just ask someone to see him? Would he fake a mental disorder or something? No, that wouldn't be a good move. What if he was admitted to a cell or something?

When Naruto entered the building, he was surprised by how dim the front lobby was, much dimmer than the hospital had been. The front desk added to the dimness, in its very blah brown. An old woman sat on the wooden desk, staring ahead at a computer screen. She turned to look at Naruto when he walked in. She gave him a tight smile.

Naruto nodded hesitantly. The woman wasn't that old, now that he was nearer to her. She was probably in her mid-forties or so. The bun she had on her hair was so tight her eyebrows looked artificially lifted. Her skin was a very pasty pale, and she wore no make-up or jewelry. Her outfit was a very lax gray, which only added to the washed out color of her face.

Naruto fidgeted a bit. Everything so far, was quite depressing. How could anyone be expected to get better mentally, in a place like this?

"Hello, sir. How may I help you?"

"U-uh…" Naruto blanked. What should he ask? If he could see Kabuto? "U-uhm, I—"

"Are you checking yourself in?" she asked tentatively. "If so, you are in the wrong section of the building. You'll have to—"

"No, no." Naruto said quickly. "I-I'm not. I'm here to see Kabuto Yakushi."

The woman blinked. "Oh. Do you have an appointment? I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you—" she began looking though papers on her desk.

"Ah, no ma'am, this is my first time here."

The woman looked at him sadly. "I'm afraid you'll have to make an appointment with Dr. Yakushi before you can see him."

"Please," Naruto started, dismayed; he couldn't have come all this way for nothing, "I'm not here for any, uh, psychiatric help. I-I just need to ask him a few questions."

The woman paused. "Are you a reporter? Dr. Yakushi doesn't—"

"No, nothing like that. I'm asking about…a relative. I want to know…what kind of care he had here."

The woman hesitated. "Are you here to collect evidence to press charges against Dr. Yakushi? If so, I'm sorry but you must come with your lawyer and a form of—"

"No, nothing like that." Naruto said, exasperated. "I just—I'm curious to know what kind of care my relative had here. A cousin. I-it's nothing that will take long. Maybe fifteen minutes or so—"

"Some of Dr. Yakushi's appointments are that long…"she said warily. "I'll have to check in with him to see if you're allowed. Today is a slow day, so maybe…" she trailed off as she picked up the phone. She dialed something too short to be a phone number, so it was probably an extension, and waited a few short moments before someone on the other line picked up.

It was quiet in the lobby, so Naruto could almost understand what the deep voice on the other end was saying.

"Dr. Yakushi?"

"_Yes, Ms. Fri…r? What is it?"_

Naruto couldn't really understand the rest of the woman's name.

"I have a man here to see you. He says he would like to ask you a few questions about a past patient. A relative. He doesn't have an appointment."

"_What is his name?"_

"Ah," she hesitated and looked at Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde whispered.

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto, sir." She said quickly.

"_I've never…"_

The rest Naruto couldn't catch.

"Yes, I understand that sir. This is his first time here."

"_Which…he…about?"_

Naruto raised an eyebrow. He didn't even get the gist of that one.

The old woman turned to look at him. "Which relative is it that you would like to ask him about?" she asked. "He might have limited memory on the exact person you're interested in."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Uh…" What was he going to do now? He should have never said that he needed to know about a relative. The psychiatrist was bound to know that Gaara had no relatives by the name of Uzumaki Naruto. Maybe he would have to make up a shit story about being a long-lost cousin or something.

"A-ah. Gaara Sabako Kaze." He said quietly.

The woman visibly tightened her hold on the phone. "G-Gaara?" she whispered to Naruto, almost with a betrayed look.

There was a questioning sound on the other end of the line.

Naruto cleared his throat. He started this, so he would go through with it. "Yes. Gaara Sabako Kaze."

The woman seemed to be trying to get her bearings together. She swallowed with difficulty, and went back to the phone. "He wants to ask about Mr. Kaze, sir." She said softly.

There was an obvious pause on the other line, and Naruto prayed silently in his head.

"…_him up."_ He heard on the other line.

"Yes sir." She said. Then she hung up and turned to look at Naruto. "The doctor will see you now. I-I'm not sure for how long; he didn't specify." She stood up from her chair and rummaged in a drawer on the other side of her desk. She took out what looked like a wooden plate. "You'll have to carry this with you." She said, handing him the plate. "It's a pass, so the nurses don't confuse you with a wandering patient, if you come across them."

She handed Naruto the pass, and the blonde was surprised to find it lighter and thinner than he'd originally thought. "Thank you." he said. "So..."

"Dr. Yakushi's office is on the third floor. Room 323, last door after the staircase and third door to your right after that elevator." she pointed to her left and when Naruto followed her finger saw an enormous red elevator door, bright enough to shed a little color on the room but still so out of place.

"Okay," he said nodding his head. "Room 323 you said?" he asked, making sure.

The woman nodded quickly and sat back in her chair. She seemed to be very eager to have him go on his way. "Yes, 323." she said curtly.

Naruto raised an eyebrow before going towards the elevator.

When he stood in front of it he took a short moment to simply stare at the enormous thing. How did he miss it when he walked in the building? He pressed the button, which he'd spent an even longer moment trying to find, and waited less than thirty seconds before it arrived.

The inside of the elevator complemented the exterior with its wide-open space. Naruto felt like it was larger than his own bedroom.

He pressed the button for the third floor but the elevator stopped on the second. When the doors opened, Naruto felt his eyes go wide at the sight before him. The second floor was so much different than the lobby, from what he could see. The light that came from outside the elevator was blinding, and an incredibly large man holding onto the hand of an estranged-looking woman with stringy dark hair, glared at him.

"Is it going up?" the large man asked, with a rough voice.

"Uuuup!" the woman beside him screamed savagely, and Naruto jumped.

"U-uh, y-yes it is." The blonde responded quickly.

The large man entered the elevator without a word, and dragged the estranged-looking woman with him. She looked left and right nervously and out of nowhere began gnawing on the giant hand that held hers.

Naruto felt like his eyes would pop out of his skull, his eyes were so wide. The third floor came quickly and he rushed outside, determined not to look back at the two in the elevator.

"Hey. Boy."

Naruto gulped. No such luck. "Uh, y-yes?" he said, turning to look at the man.

"Do you have permission from your caregiver to wander the hospital." He didn't even say it like a question.

"U-uhm, I-I'm not—" he paused, remembering the pass. He pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to the huge man.

He only received a grunt in return, and the elevator proceeded to close in his face.

The blonde raised an eyebrow and settled the shiver that wanted to run along his spine.

When he looked at his surroundings he was surprised to find it bland and boring again, with dull yellow walls, and dark brown doors.

Room 323…

He didn't remember how many doors from the elevator the woman downstairs said Yakushi's office would be from the elevator, but he knew he had to make a right turn. A few doors down and in less than ten seconds, Naruto found himself standing in front of room 323. There was a small window looking into the room, and a nameplate that said the doctor's full name in bold letters.

He knocked.

Once...twice—

"Come in."

Naruto barely heard the words, and opened the door on the _chance_ that he heard something more than anything else.

When he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, he saw an older man, a little shorter than he was, with a course beard, cut close to his face, and long white hair tied in a ponytail that swayed as he stood up and nodded to the blonde.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" the man asked. He attempted a smile, but it died as if the effort he needed to make it was too much.

"Uh…hello." Naruto said nodding his own head. "I—"

"Are you with the police?" the doctor asked him before he could get a word out.

Naruto paused. "I'm not—" he had to stop then, because could he really say that he wasn't with the police? Any important information he could get out of this guy, he would tell the authorities, or at least Kakashi. He wasn't completely confident in his skills alone, but he would try his best.

"I'm not really _with_ the police." He said finally. "I'm…I kind of involved myself in an investigation…and now I'm just here to find out more information."

The older man looked at him with steady eyes, as if trying to find something he was trying hide. "Does this have to do with you being related to him?" the man asked carefully.

Naruto's eyes widened a bit about that. "I….uh…" Shit. Did he really want to continue to lie about that? He didn't want it to somehow taint the information the man would give him. "I actually—"

"You must be from his mother's side…" the man said, looking at him with eyes squinted. He seemed to be taking all of Naruto in. "You have hair like his uncle, and his sister…"

Naruto blinked. Was he talking about Gaara?

"Those eyes though…I've never seen that color in the Kaze family. Who was your mother? Your father?"

Naruto gulped. "Erm…h-his last name was Uzumaki—but I didn't really know him." He finished quickly.

The doctor raised his eyebrows. "Then you were raised by a Kaze?" he asked.

Naruto shook his head violently before he could think. "I—I didn't know my mother…either…" he finished lamely.

The white haired man frowned. "Then how are you sure you are related to Gaara?"

"Uh…" Naruto started. "I asked around…and I looked into my family history…a-and it turns out I'm his cousin. H-half cousin." He attempted a smile, but it died in the narrow eyes of the psychiatrist. "O-on his father's side…" he finished with what he would never admit was a squeak.

The doctor seemed to take a pause then, and tilted his head. "I never knew Mr. Kaze had a sister as well…"

"Well he _did_." Naruto said finally, wanting the conversation over as quickly as possible. "And I want to ask you questions about my cousin—half cousin—who you treated here."

"And that would be Gaara Sabaku Kaze…" the man seemed to say it unbelievingly, and he looked at the blonde with a suspicious eye.

Naruto stared back, and grinned, for good measure.

Kabuto looked taken aback by that. "Alright then, Mr. Uzumaki." He said, going back to his desk. "Have a seat there, if you will." He pointed to a comfortable looking chair in front of his desk.

Naruto took the chair cautiously, but had to relax when he realized just how cozy the thing was. He sunk further into the plush seat and sat up when he saw the white-haired doctor looking at him with an unplayfully raised eyebrow.

Naruto cleared his throat nervously, and began to speak. "Uhm…Since you're his pasychiatrist…I'm sure you're well aware of Gaara's…past. His crimes, his sentences to jail….his escape…"

The man before him visibly swallowed. "Yes, I know all about that." He said quietly, not quite looking into the blonde's eyes. "What is it exactly that you would like to know? How I treated Gaara? How he could have possibly turned into such a…" he stopped himself and looked to the gound.

Naruto looked at the doctor for a few moments, not really understanding his behavior, before he continued. "Well recently…there have been certain events…events that are leading me, and a group of others—city officials—to believe that Gaara is involved in an incident concerning recent missing persons, murdered individuals, and identity theft."

Kabuto shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "What are you saying? That he's becoming active again?" he asked apprehensively.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "For all we know he's always been active. It's just that now he's taken it back to this area, and we want to catch him before he escapes again—before anyone else gets hurt."

Kabuto shook his head, looking miserable, and exhaled a long breath. "He's in the city?" he whispered, looking at Naruto as if betrayed.

Naruto blinked before shaking his head. "We believe so, yeah."

"You keep saying "we"." The doctor said after several moments, seemingly getting his bearings together. "If you're with the police just tell me. You don't have to cover-up. I won't hide anything from you." He said.

Naruto swallowed. He wondered if the man would give him more information if he thought he was with the authorities. Would he get in trouble if he said he was a police officer? Naruto shook his head. He knew there was a law somewhere that made it illegal to impersonate anyone, even if it was for a small time. But still…

"I'm…" he looked to the side, as if the dull walls would give him the answers. "…a detective." He finished finally. He knew he made a mistake the moment he said it. He didn't know what had a higher ranking, but he knew that saying he was a detective had to be worse. Detectives had a certain kind of skill that he knew he wouldn't be able to fake, and now this doctor was going to be telling him information he would probably only trust to an official. "I'm not related to Gaara. I-I was just hoping that would get you to talk to me..." he finished lamely.

When the blonde turned to look at said doctor, he was surprised to see a look of utter misery in his face. "_Detective_…" the man whispered to himself, shaking his head, as if he didn't hear Naruto's last confession.

Naruto squirmed a bit in his chair. Did this man have him figured out already?

"All right." said Kabuto, after a long minute of silence. "What is it that you would like to know?"

Naruto said nothing for a while, trying to understand the man before him. Was he upset that he had to talk to Naruto? The blonde didn't know what would constitute the look of devastation that was on the doctor's face. Maybe he just didn't want to talk about Gaara…

"Well?"

Naruto blinked, coming back to himself. "Right, uhm," he dug into his left pocket and pulled out a small stack of papers. "I have a few reports you'd written on Gaara from quite a few years back, " he said. "You explained what you could about his condition, I think, but most of it is illegible." He handed the papers to the doctor.

Kabuto took them and lay them out in his desk. He took a pair of glasses from the side of the table and put it on as he looked carefully at each haphazardly kept document. "Yes." He said, nodding his head. "I remember this…The police came into my office before my office and demanded all the notes I'd written on Gaara." His eyes dimmed slightly. "When I asked them why they needed it…they told me the heinous crimes Gaara had committed the night before…"

Kabuto shook his head and sat back in his chair. "I gave them a lot more than this. Almost everything was transferred to the psychiatric personnel he would be provided in prison."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "So you're saying the police have a hold of more than just this?" he asked.

Kabuto shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I just know I gave them all that I could on such short notice. They needed all the information they could get on this twelve year old boy, because they were preparing for a plead of insanity on Gaara's side of the court."

Naruto shook his head, not understanding. "Wait, I don't…the policemen were taking some sort of precaution?"

The doctor nodded his head. "The police and his siblings wanted nothing more than to put Gaara in jail for a long time, but after the police found out he was admitted into psychiatric care, they took measures to access all documents towards that psychiatric care, through myself, in order to counter all cases that would inevitably be made towards a plead for insanity."

Naruto took his index and middle finger on both hands and pressed it to wither side of his temple. He made a promise to himself that when he didn't understand something, he wouldn't just shove it off as smart talk and move on; he was going to try to understand it—and what Kabuto just said was floating in his mind as nonsense at the moment.

_So_, he thought to himself, Gaara's siblings and police officers wanted to put Gaara in prison, and they wanted to be ready for an insanity plea that Gaara's lawyers could make, so they acquired all information on his psychiatric files in order to be better prepared?

Naruto shook his head. Even with the information organized in his head, he still didn't get it. "What kind of investment did the police have in Gaara's case? I've never heard of police officers getting involved with court dealings like that."

The doctor shook his head. "I don't know. All I know is that they wanted the information, just in case."

"And did your notes help?"

Kabuto shook his head, looking uncommitted rather than sad. "They didn't need to do their research. Gaara pleaded guilty on all counts."

Naruto let that sink in a bit. "Was it an advantage that his lawyer wanted to use in order to reduce the number of years Gaara would have to spend in prison or—"

"No." Kabuto said. He was shaking his head before Naruto finished his sentence. "It was clear to everyone that Gaara felt no…remorse for his actions. And any plea for insanity would go unsupported by him. Lawyers and their clients have a sort of trust with each other, and I know that no trust was exercised between those two, so any lines they would have rehearsed towards that plead would have been for nothing…" the doctor trailed off, and rubbed his chin morosely.

"How do you know that?" Naruto asked softly.

Kabuto exhaled slowly. "Because I was present at every court date…and despite being known as one of the best murder-case lawyers in the entire Northern-sect of this country, his lawyer came almost completely resigned and unprepared to each court date, offered up no witnesses to support Gaara's side, and delivered an appalling closing speech to the already unimpressed jurors." He said, with a tone that said it was obvious.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "That's…hardly fair." He said slowly. "For Gaara to get such an incompetent lawyer—"

"Did you hear what I said?" Kabuto said, interrupting him. "They hired the _best_." He sat up in his chair and wiped a nervous hand across his top lip. "The best." He repeated. "And Gaara made her crumble." He whispered harshly. He leaned forwards, as if in urgent need of catching Naruto's attention, "Are you listening to me?" he asked. "Gaara. Made. Her. _Crumble_."

Naruto blinked, shaking his head jerkily and sitting up. "I don't…What are you saying? How did Gaara do that?"

Kabuto leaned back in his chair and looked to the floor. "I don't know. But I suppose he did the same thing he did to me during our sessions…" he trailed off for a moment, before looking into Naruto's eyes again. "Gaara simply has… a certain quality about himself…that makes people think…too hard about the world…their lives…and the purposes they have in the life they have been given." He finished with a shrug and offered another awkward smile that died away as soon as it tried to appear.

Naruto swallowed and squirmed a bit more in his chair.

When neither of them spoke for several moments, the doctor spoke. "Very shortly after Gaara was sentenced…" he started lowly. "His lawyer, the Croatian woman—Ten-Ten something or other—killed herself." He finished with a shake of his head.

Naruto inwardly gasped, and sat up. "What? Why…?" he asked carefully.

When Kabuto only looked at him with knowing eyes, Naruto gave back an annoyed look.

"Yes, I know it's Gaara this and Gaara that—but _how_, exactly? What does he do to make these people so…" he didn't want to use the word depressed or suicidal.

"Afraid." Kabuto finished for him rolling his shoulders as if nursing a cramp. "He makes them afraid."

"Afraid of _what_?"

Kabuto paused for a few moments before he answered, "Afraid of living." He replied plainly. Then he looked up at Naruto with questioning eyes, as if he himself was figuring this out. "He puts fears in their hearts by emphasizing the pointlessness of living…He makes death seem…" he shrugged his shoulders and looked to the side of the room again, with contemplation in his eyes. "…welcoming." He finished in a whisper.

Naruto blinked. "…And…Gaara's always been like this?" he asked softly. "Even in the beginning, when he first started meeting with you?"

The doctor narrowed his eyes at the distance, in thought. "In the beginning?" he asked himself quietly. "I suppose in the beginning he just had a budding _potential_ for monstrous things." He shrugged noncommittally. "But you can't really think that until those things have been done, can you?" he said, shaking his head. "Not with a six year old boy."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto had to ask, because Kabuto seemed to be talking to himself.

Said man looked at Naruto with steady eyes. "I'm saying, when I first met Gaara…he wasn't really the type I'd pinpoint as a future murderer. Only a very strange boy, ahead of his years."

Naruto nodded and folded his hands. "Can I ask, if it's not too private, how exactly does a six year old get admitted to a place like this? Did his parents think he was weird from the beginning or—"

"It was nightmares." The doctor replied. "His mother came to me, and asked if her son could speak to me, from time to time. Perhaps find the origins of his night terrors…"

"His mother…" Naruto nodded. "Were she and Gaara…close? I read in one of the files that she died in the summer of…'93, I think? Gaara was seven."

Kabuto folded his hands together and nodded. "You've done your research. Yes, I believe it was '93. She died sometime in the early morning, and Gaara came to our session alone for the first time that day. I think I might have been the first one to know, after himself, that his mother died…"

Naruto shook his head. "Wait, what? How exactly did she die?"

"Gaara's mother committed suicide." Kabuto said waving a hand. "He saw it happen, told no one in his family, and came to me merely hours afterwards. It sounds like he left her for dead, doesn't it?" he added with a small smile, responding to the blonde's obvious look of anger.

"That's exactly what it sounds like, " Naruto exclaimed. He and his mother had not been the best of friends but he would never _watch_ his mother die. "Gaara watched his mother commit suicide and didn't _tell_ anybody—?"

The doctor raised a hand, effectively shutting Naruto up. "I know how it sounds…I might even go as far as to say that Gaara might have…had a hand at killing his mother…but know this well:" he said, looking at Naruto with grave eyes. "Gaara _loved_ his mother," he whispered. "It was a deep love that most children don't understand until their much older, but Gaara…he loved her." He nodded solemnly and leaned back into his chair.

"How can that even be?" Naruto asked incredulously. "You don't _not_ freak out when someone you love is committing suicide—"

"I can't tell you why it is the way it is." The doctor said, interrupting Naruto again. "But I can tell you why I think so." He sniffed and took one of the papers from his desk. It was the sheet with several pictures of Gaara on it. He traced one of the earlier photographs with a finger. "His mother, whenever the topic of our conversation, was always talked of in positive regard—although one might not realize the regard as positive, until you get to know Gaara a little better. He spoke in this…sort of…_riddlesque_ type of tone. He never said things straight forwards. Everything he said was something I needed to decipher. And when it came to his mother…" he sighed and looked away. "He would say the most...strange and…convoluted things. It was quite tiresome actually…to have to read into them, and understand what on earth he was trying to say…

"But after a while, I realized that Gaara simply…really loved his mother…I might go as far as to say he was _in_ love with her." He shook his head again and continued to look in the distance. "Even after his mother was pronounced dead—it was all over his local news for a time, I acquired some clippings—he still spoke of her. As if she was still alive, really. When I asked him what he thought of his mother's passing, he would tell me…" he paused, searching for the words. "…'she's finally an eternity'…"

Naruto squinted his eyes at that. "Were those his exact words?"

Kabuto shrugged. "Almost exactly. He said a lot of strange things. Some of them I've committed to heart, and others lay jumbled in the reserves of my mind…" he trailed off again.

Naruto leaned back in his chair. He'd brought a blank sheet of paper and pen to take notes on, and wondered if it would be rude to take out. He wrinkled his nose. Well he was a "detective" now, wasn't he? It would be classic of him to take notes.

He dug into his other pocket and pulled out the scruffy lined paper he'd brought with him, alone with the pen. "Excuse me for a moment." He nodded to the doctor before he spread the wrinkled sheet on his knee and began to write.

"Would you like a notepad?" Kabuto asked politely from behind his desk.

Naruto looked at him, then at his pathetic piece of wrinkled paper on his knee. "Uh…if it won't be any trouble…" he trailed off bashfully.

Kabuto shook his head and sat up to open a drawer at his desk. "Not at all." He threw a small thing Naruto's way, and when the blonde caught it, he saw it was a miniature notepad.

"You can keep that." Kabuto said.

Naruto nodded his thanks and began to write quickly.

_Admitted for nightmares, close to mother, talks in riddles—_

"So, " Naruto continued. "Since we're on the topic of his mother, can you tell me a bit about his family?" he asked.

Kabuto tilted his head looked at Naruto strangely.

"What…?" Naruto asked carefully.

"Nothing." The man said quickly. "I'm just wondering why a detective doesn't already know everything about Gaara's family. All the information should be in whatever file city officials use…"

Naruto blinked, and hesitated. "Uhm…i-it's just…I'm new." He responded. "And this is sort of…my first assignment. To get information from you…"

Kabuto looked disbelieving, and almost angry. "They would let a _beginner_ work on something that has to do with Gaara?" he asked incredulously.

Naruto swallowed with difficultly. "It's just that…they're afraid that Gaara will recognize them…and their tactics, so they want someone new on the job. Someone he doesn't know…"

Kabuto sunk back in his chair and hummed deeply. "I see…" he said in a low tone. "That's…a bit selfish of them, don't you think? Risking your life like that."

Naruto blinked. He was so busy reveling in the awesome lie he'd just told, that he was lost when it came to answering that. When he could say nothing for long moments, Kabuto raised his hand, disregarding the statement, and began to speak again.

"From what I know, Gaara lived with his siblings, his father, his mother until her passing, and his uncle."

"The one who Gaara burned to death?"

"To death?" Kabuto said raising an eyebrow. "He was burned alive—but not to death. He's still alive. Last time I checked he was admitted into a lunatic asylum shortly after he'd healed from most of his burns."

Naruto nearly chocked. "He's still alive? _How_?"

Kabuto shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose he had a strong will to live?" he suggested non-committedly. "I never really thought about that…I believe he came to live with the Kaze family after the mother passed, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure I can give you an accurate take on the relationship Gaara had with the rest of his family besides his mother, but from our sessions, I've gathered that he didn't particularly care much for his siblings. When we spoke of them usually brushed them off as just…people living in his house I suppose. They were much older than he was, so I'm guessing he found it hard to connect with them…"

"Do you know how he felt about his father, and his uncle?" Naruto asked. "They're the ones who he killed, after all."

"To tell you the truth, and I'm ashamed to admit this, we rarely spoke of either of them…" he stoked the hairs on the side of his face and chin. "If I was asked then, who Gaara would kill, if he had the chance, not only would I put it passed him to murder in the first place, I would also not suspect his father or his uncle. His father had to have been a good provider, since I'm sure he was the one who handled payments for Gaara's sessions with me…"

"How do you know that?"

"Well…my services aren't cheap." He said, stroking the hairs on his face again. "And I did a bit of research myself in the months immediately following Gaara's first sentencing. Apparently his father, who I'm guessing made a small salary off of being a pastor, had a wealthy half- brother on his mother's side."

"His dad was a pastor?" Naruto asked, forgetting about the rest of the information for a moment. "Like a church guy?"

Kabuto nodded his head. "Yes, he led a church in Suna—one of the many small towns right outside Mushroom City."

Naruto wrinkled his nose, and wrote '_Suna'_ in his notepad. "Was Gaara born there?"

Kabuto shrugged. "I'm not so sure he was born there. Most of the small towns outskirting Mushroom use the city's hospital and clinics for all their medical needs. Unless it was a home birth, I'd bet Gaara was born in this city. I can tell you that he lived most of his young life in Suna, however."

Naruto nodded. He didn't know much about Suna, but he knew his own parents lived in Konoha, which outskirted the city on the northern side. He knew there were other little towns, like Cloud, which was a hilly place Naruto driven across once or twice with friends, Mist Village, where a lot of young people went to find work while they were still attending high school, and Sound District, which was more like a lowly populated city..

"When you say that your services aren't cheap," Naruto started slowly, "Is it really expensive?"

Kabuto did a non-committing side to side wave of his hand. "My usual patients or clients come from high-end middle class families. I didn't inquire about the status of Gaara's family then, but if they were able to pay, I suppose they were well enough off."

Naruto 'hmmed'. "And this half-brother person…did he like…pay for all of this?"

Kabuto shrugged. "I'm not so sure how the arrangement went. I just know that his half-brother is the founder an oil company—Kage-Oil, you might be familiar with it, but it's more famous oversees towards the west."

Naruto vaguely recalled the name of the company, but they sounded powerful enough.

"I don't know if it's a rumor, but lately Kaze's first son, his name escapes me, is working with his half uncle right now, trying to merge two companies."

"Kankuro?" Naruto asked, wondering if he got the name right.

Kabuto nodded. "Yes, I think that's what his name was. Kage-Oil, and a Kaze Mining company are joining in a sort of partnership. Kazekage Fuel they're going to call it…" he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't pay much attention to business news like that, but there you have it."

Naruto nodded. He read online that Kankuro made something of himself after going to college at one of the nation's top schools, but he wasn't interested enough in Gaara's older brother to continue his research.

"Do you have any idea what the mother did?"

"From what I gathered, she was simply a stay at home mother." Kabuto replied.

Naruto nodded again, and scribbled something else on his notepad. When he reviewed the contents he had so far, he looked at the first thing he wrote:

_Admitted for nightmares…_

"Can you tell me more about the nightmares Gaara was admitted here for?" he asked. He was surprised he forgot about the information in the first place.

Kabuto suddenly looked at uncomfortable as he did in the beginning of the session.

"Nightmares…" he repeated slowly, before he sat up in his chair. "They weren't really…nightmares to him." He said slowly. "I think his mother simply had him draw out his dreams on a piece of paper…and what Gaara drew disturbed her…"

"What did Gaara draw? Bloody guts and things?" Naruto asked, preparing himself for a bit of gory details. He'd seen scary movies like that, where haunted children drew disturbing things.

Kabuto pointed a finger and shook it knowingly at Naruto. "That's usually what one would expect when they're told a child is having disturbing dreams, isn't it? And it is usually the case for children with unstable minds. I've seen kids draw bloodied parents, mutilated pets, and such, but Gaara…" he folded his hands and looked at Naruto with dark eyes. "He drew his mother breast feeding snakes and spiders, he drew personified trees blowing fire into the faces of his siblings, he drew himself falling into a deep well with inflamed hands awaiting him at the bottom…" he looked like he would continue on, but stopped when he saw the look on Naruto's face. He gave a sad smile. "Yes, I know." He said morosely.

"That's so…disturbing." The blonde said lamely. His mouth felt dry.

"Especially for a six year old." Kabuto said. "But I wasn't as disturbed as I should have been. I was so young and naïve then; I actually put Gaara's strange mind on a positive level instead of negative level. I thought he was going to grow to be an artistic or literary savant of some sort. His pictures weren't mindless doodles of a brooding child; they were thought out descriptions that he made up in his mind. Something he thought about, do you understand? And the way he wrote was also strange for a child his age. Almost poetic, except I never understood what he was talking about unless I asked him directly. He writes things that only he can understand. Everything is like…an insider between him and his mind."

Naruto nodded. "Did you actually see the pictures and his writing?" he asked. "Or did Gaara just describe—"

"Oh, no I saw them. I was going to get them for you, but I'm not sure they're still in this office. I have a lot of Gaara' s written work however: writing prompts I had him do while in session. You could have a look at those if you'd like."

"I'd love to." Naruto said, in gratitude. "If it won't be any trouble."

Kabuto shook his head. "None at all; everything is organized so I'll find it fairly quickly and be able to return it back to its original place just the same. Just make sure not to put each entry out of order when you get them." he said, as he stood up from his desk. He walked to the end of his office where there were four cabinets, each of them five drawers tall. "Now as I was saying," the doctor said as he opened one drawer, "we have to remember that Gaara's pictures weren't just off the top if his head—they were in his dreams. Now, one can only dream about things and images that they've seen, heard, or had some sort of knowledge of, so I found the content of most of dreams very odd for his age."

"And Gaara didn't think they were nightmares?" Naruto asked carefully.

"Not at all." Kabuto said, closing one drawer and looking into another. "In fact he thought—no, not thought; Gaara never thought anything; he just sort of knew."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, most children in their early stages of life go about questioning everything, and they're usually very unsure about themselves, as they're still used to having adults make important decisions for them. But Gaara? Not at all. He spoke as if he knew things. As if there were facts instead of just ponderings. He even asked questions as if he already knew the answer—as if he was just seeing if you would come up with the same answer he'd already had in mind."

Naruto shivered. Gaara had that affect, even when he was a young boy? "Did that "knowingness" ever become a sort of legitimate thing? Did you ever take what he said to heart, because they would come true, or something like that?" Naruto knew he didn't form the sentence well, but he hoped the doctor understood.

To his surprise, Kabuto stiffened a bit a bit, before rolling his shoulders and looking the the cabinets again. "Do you mean if Gaara had a basis for being so confident in what he said? Maybe yes, maybe no. But I wouldn't trust my judgment on that. For a long while Gaara just creeped me out, excuse me if I'm being unprofessional, so everything he did or said seemed a bit…too significant." he finished lamely, and Naruto couldn't help but the doctor was downplaying something.

"But how was he _like._" Naruto felt compelled to ask. "Was he…I don't know, scary? Did he have a foreboding aura about him?"

Kabuto stayed silent for several moments, and Naruto watched as he pulled a file from his drawer and closed it back. He stood up from his crouched position and walked back to his desk. When he sat down he sighed. "That foreboding aura, you're talking about started a bit before his mother died. And when she did die…" he shook his head. "Well, Gaara was never quite the same again."

Naruto swallowed with difficulty. Did that mean that Gaara's mother's death made him into the man he was now? Was all this crime some desperate cry for the longing and lost love of his mother? "How did he change?" he asked softly.

The doctor stared at the desk for a long time. "Gaara was always…" he stopped, having talked before he had his words together. When he started up again he still didn't look at Naruto. "Gaara was always a bit…strange…ahead of his years. And I think…that if he'd remained that way he would have simply become a child with a few friends, and strange ideas. Probably interested in medieval or gothic trends, perhaps an avid reader, maybe. But…after he'd turned seven years old, something in his home-life was changing him. Diverting him from the path I'd originally envisioned for him." He smiled bitterly. "I think his mother's death was the line that crossed him over from being simply a strange child, to a cold-blooded murderer."

"But _how_?" Naruto asked, almost exasperated. "How does that work? I'm no expert in psychology or whatever but I don't think traumatic events work just like that."

Kabuto nodded fervently. "And you're right to think they don't just work like that; you have to have it _in_ you before things simply affect you like that—_But_, with that in mind, remember that humans are capable of almost everything. If that's the case, then traumatic events _can_change someone into something terrible, because the human species have it in them in first place." He leaned forwards in his chair and looked at Naruto with urgent eyes, wanting the blonde to really understand where he was coming from.

Naruto started shaking his head, confused, but Kabuto went on.

"Of course you have to take into account that, in a small sense this is an example of causation and correlation, however, the former doesn't result in the latter, because of possible third parties. But, if the third party is _already_ present in every human being—that party being the innate ability to commit unlawful crimes and such things—then simple causes, such as a mother's death, _can_ trigger someone to change completely. It's like a preexisting or precipitating cause before a mental disorder."

Naruto blinked, his mind completely numbed by his confusion. "I-I'm sorry…What?"

Kabuto shook his head. "I'm sorry; I ran off in a bit of a tangent. What I'm getting at is that it is possible that traumatic events can alter a person completely. In Gaara's case it was simply the…_completion_ of a transformation of sorts. Murder and destruction…were closer to the surface of his character than the average human being—I reckon I can say that now."

Naruto blinked slowly. "You can say that _now_?"

Kabuto nodded. "I say 'now' because when I think back on my time with him, I realize things I didn't before." He shifted a bit in his chair, looking uncomfortable again. "Sometimes…when I think back…I remember things he said to me, and I can't help but think that he was…somehow telling me that he was going to do what he did."

"You mean stab his dad, and burn his uncle?"

"Yes."

"And do you have any idea why Gaara burned him alive? Why he killed his father?"

"No." the doctor sighed. "I told you: we hardly ever spoke of them during our sessions, Even in the prompts I made him write about his day, or his family life, he never mentions them."

"Those writings…can I see them?" Naruto asked, pointing at the portfolio on Kabuto's desk.

"Yes, of course." Kabuto said, giving Naruto the file. "In the beginning, the majority of the prompts I'd given him were about his dreams, but afterwards they became about monsters he claimed to exist, and other strange things—"

"What monsters?" Naruto asked, looking up from the portfolio. He remembered reading about Gaara claiming monsters came into his room.

"Well, after his mother passed…he started talking about non-human beings that would come into his room, monsters that wanted—not to eat him—but for him to eat himself."

Naruto raised both eyebrows.

Kabuto nodded. "He called these non-human things his shadows, and he said they wanted to watch him eat himself, consume himself, and become reborn as one them—his own shadow."

Naruto shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand that." He said.

"I didn't understand it myself, really. Still don't. But he always spoke strangely. He never gave direct answers. Everything was a metaphor or something out of nineteenth century novel. He started grade school by then, so I thought the education he was receiving was somehow influencing him, but when I asked him about school, he would brush it off like something insignificant." Kabuto sighed and toyed with the pen that lay on his desk. "I knew he was hiding something. He didn't want me to know something. Something was going on, and he wasn't telling me.

"Although I suppose, I wasn't really itching to find out at the time. I was…afraid of him, by then. He made me think of things I didn't want to think about, and he…he had an _anger_—did you read about that?"

"Yes—but can you elaborate a bit? I think you wrote in one of your reports that Gaara had a sort of disorder…"

"Yes, Intermittent Explosive Disorder. It wasn't really a diagnoses, but more a...hunch. It didn't immediately follow his mother's death, but about a few months after her passing, he began to blow up at simple questions I would ask him or if I didn't understand what he was saying…" the doctor shook his head sadly. "That anger lasted a few months, but then—"

"Wait, but what do you mean by anger?" Naruto urged. "You wrote in one of your reports that he didn't get angry like other people."

"He would get angry when I asked certain things," Kabuto started. "usually things about his home life. But he didn't get angry like a normal child would. When he's angry he just sort of simmers, and thinks about ways to hurt you." He ran a tired hand through his hair. "Not physically, but mentally. He could get under your skin, that kid. It was like he looked at one expression you made, and knew what was on your mind…" The man paused to shake his head again. "And his eyes. That's how you know when he's unhappy—he had an almost…demonic quality about them when I said something out of line. And it was…strange seeing that look on a young child. It scared me." He let out a breath.

"Whenever I _did_ get something out of him," he continued. "something about how he felt and what he was going through, he would talk about those monsters coming into his room. There was a time where he told me about a different monster, one he wasn't afraid of. He said that this new monster was weak, and pathetic, and did not seek to change him, only to use him—or something like that."

Naruto nodded his head vaguely, without understanding a word of what the man had just said.

"There were also other disorders." Kabuto continued. He pointed to one of the paper's Naruto had given him. "This is the list I made of all the things he had symptoms of." He picked up the sheet and traced the list, with a finger.

Naruto recognized the report as one of the sheets he couldn't understand due to its ineligibility.

"There was the intermittent explosive disorder...and for a time he explained symptoms similar to Exploding Head Syndrome."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. "Exploding head?"

Kabuto nodded. "The name is crude, I know. But Gaara told me that sometimes, after dreaming peculiar dreams, he would hear incredibly loud noises, like banging and screeching, and bombs all in succession, for a few minutes."

"That...how is that even-?"

"It's a hallucination." Kabuto clarified. "They are only in his mind. It is sort of a phenomena. No one knows why people have it, and there is no known cure."

Naruto wrinkled is nose. "I'd go crazy if I ever had something like that." he said truthfully.

Kabuto shrugged, uncommittingly. "Some people are fine after experiencing something like that. Although it is very rare."

"Hmm. What else did Gaara have? Or at least, what else did you think he might have?"

"A few personality disorders, like Anti-social and Schizotypical disorder, and with a few of the stories he's told me, I've detected possible pyromania, which is a sort of obsession with fires and starting them, pain asymbolia, which is the inability to feel pain, and anhedonia which is the inability to feel pleasure."

"Where did you get these theories from? And what could you do to help him?"

"That's...just it." Kabuto said lowly. He looked away nervously and scratched the side of his head. "They're just _theories_. As a psychiatrist I can prescribe medication but because I could never directly diagnose Gaara with any sort of confidence, I..." the white haired man shook his head, and folded his hands in his lap. He didn't look at Naruto. "I gave him an _assortment_ of pills. Off the grid. I went into the lab and stained them with colors so he would know which ones to take and when, and then I had him describe how he felt after every pill." Kabuto said those words quickly, and when he was finished, he sighed and sank back into his chair.

Naruto blinked. An assortment of pills? "You did get _permission_ to do that, right?" he asked carefully.

"Off the grid." Kabuto repeated. "No one knew...except me and Gaara. I told him directly that I was performing a sort of experiment, and he wasn't opposed to it...he was almost...amused."

Naruto sat back in his chair, and squeezed the arms. "Isn't that...some kind of malpractice?" he asked, something like anger rising in his stomach. "Isn't that...sort of like substance abuse? You used Gaara like some sort of _Guinea_ pig-"

"It was for his own good!" Kabuto half-shouted, sitting up in his chair. "I gave him a schedule of when to take each, and how to take them. They weren't even natural pills-more like suppelments to increase dopamine levels and increase the serotonine in his-"

"Wait, wait, wait." Naruto said, raising his hands. If Kabuto started with that science talk, he would lose track of the entire conversation and foget why he was angry in the first place. "How exactly did Gaara react to these...pills? And how did you even record those reactions?"

"We had sessions four days a week, and I had him take one after session, where he would report the effects to me the next day, and one before session,so I could see the results myself."

"And? Did the pills...do anything?"

Kabuto swallowed with a bit of difficultly. "He...uh...he didn't react _well_. The anti-depressant supplement made his heart race, without having the proper effect of giving some sort of elated mood, the pills for his lack of pleasure backfired as well, and most of the other pills made him tired, and even more unresponsive than usual...And some of them made him...sick. Vomiting, nausea...more hallucinations..." he looked away again, and wiped his mouth with a guilty hand.

"That's _horrible_." Naruto exclaimed, leaning forwards. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?" In all honesty even Naruto didn't know what could have happened. It just seemed so wrong that this man would do such a thing.

"Please," Kabuto started, pleadingly. "find it in yourself to not...report me. I know what I did was mistake, but I only gave him one batch of assortments so the... _experiment" _he himself cringed at the word_._ "only lasted about two months. In the process, I feel like I've found the only reasonable diagnoses for Gaara's abnormal behavior."

Naruto breathed in deeply and looked hard at the psychiatrist. He suddenly remembered the title he gave himself as a detective. If anything, the man was afraid and scared because Naruto would bring him to the authorities or something. But Kabuto's words caught up to him, and he swallowed the anger he found already rising past his chest. "And what would that be?" he asked lowy.

Kabuto leaned forwards, with wide eyes, and if Naruto was any closer, the blonde bet the docor would have tried to hold his hands in urgency. "Everything all molds down to one thing, my sessions and Gaara's life after the sessions including. Gaara is simply a _psychopath_."

Naruto blinked, trying to take it in. "A psychopath?"

Kabuto nodded slowly. "I..." he paused then, and looked down. "Not completely." he confessed. "He lacks the tendency to evade responsibly to things, and the mindless impulsive and irresponsible behavior, but he seems to have a strong case for other things: the utter lack of empathy for others, as proven by the murders he committed without so much as a grudge, and his incredible ability to _manipulate_."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I forgot to ask about that. I remember reading in your reports about Gaara's manipulation. Elaborate." Naruto couldn't be polite, because of what he knew the man had done.

Kabuto visibly hesitated before he spoke. "Gaara was...He just knew what would make you do things he wanted you to. He knew what to say to make you follow his command, and he was an expert at...finding blackmail..." the man trailed off then, and looked away.

"Are you saying a six year old blackmailed you?" Naruto asked, disbelievingly.

"He was older then. Eleven or twelve." Kabuto countered lamely.

"And what did he do exactly?"

There was another long pause on the doctor's end. "I'd...rather not say." he said finally. "It's a private matter. Just know that Gaara finds a way to know everything about you without you knowing a spick about him. It's _infuriating_. It's as if he is an expert on human emotions, despite showing symptoms of schizoid who can _barely_ interpet such things." Kabuto sat back in his chair angrily, his frustration showing,

"Everything that related to some sort of mental abnormality, I wrote it down, but I couldn't properly treat it because I could never be _sure _with him. That's why I-!" he stopped himself, and looked angrily away. "That's why I," he continued more calmly. "gave him the assortment of pills. I only wanted to find some answers and _help_ him. That's all I wanted to do..." he trailed off and shut his eyes.

Naruto's eyes softened. He didn't agree with the man's methods but he couldn't stay mad at him.

He was too busy fingering the sides of the thick portfolio Kabuto had given him. It was brown thing, and Naruto could see a few yellow sheets peeking out from inside.

"Would you like to look through those now?" Kabuto asked lightly.

Naruto nodded his head without looking at the doctor, and snapped the button that was holding the portfolio together. It opened suddenly, and Naruto had to adjust so all the papers wouldn't come tumbling out.

"Careful…" Kabuto said from behind his desk.

Naruto nodded again, and took the first sheet out. It looked like it was ripped from a yellow notepad. There was a heading on top, written in different handwriting than the rest of the text: _May, 1992. Prompt: nightmares._

Naruto read the first few lines of the tiny, neat handwriting.

_I dreamed I was crying all the waters come out of my eyes and drowned the whole world I was not scard becos mommy was not drowned. she was on the bed and we took the bed like a boat and we floated away. but there was so many water and were high like the sun and it ate us up. Mommy and me burned and then I was awake but I was not scared becos fire is warm in my dreams_

Naruto raised an eyebrow. The grammar left something to be desired…but the _content_. The blonde shook his head. What kind of six year old dreamed of everyone drowning and then burning in the sun with his mother? "I thought you said he was a genius…" Naruto joked with a small laugh, talking about the grammar.

Kabuto looked confused. "What do you mean? He was six years old when he wrote that."

"Is this something a six year old can't do?" Naruto asked. He wasn't an expert of child development, but he didn't really see anything special in what he'd just read.

"Six year old children usually can't form sentences correctly, and they aren't very good spellers. It's around that age that their vocabulary increases dramatically, but they don't know what to do with the words they know. But the grammar is beside the point. What about what he _wrote_?"

"It's…weird." Naruto said finally.

Kabuto nodded. "His mind really sets itself apart from other kids as he grows older. You'll see that his handwriting, his spelling, his writing style, changes drastically every few months. He is a fast learner."

Naruto frowned and skipped to the middle of the files.

Again, the date on the heading was a different handwriting than the actual piece.

_October, 1995, Prompt: monsters._

_There is a third kind, now. He does not do very much. Unless you count the eyes. He does not scream at me or beckon, like the others. He does not touch me, like the one. He sits there and watches. I like that he watches. I like that he watches me. Every turn of his eyelash will fall to caress the bones of each pitless peach. Of the skill, he will choose red and she will choose brown. They'll watch me, together and afterwards, before dawn has set and night has risen. Between time, we will all suffer. And I will be the only one he knows._

Naruto blinked. Then he blinked again. He…

He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to make of any of what he just read. The beginning seemed fine; Gaara was talking about a being of some sort—but then it started getting strange. He didn't understand the bit about the peach, or the colors—

It just didn't make any sense.

"What have you just read." Kabuto asked him.

"I…have no idea." Naruto replied, shaking his head. "S-something about…" he sighed and shook his head. "I don't even know how to summarize it. He talks about someone—or something watching him. Then he talks about and eyelash on a bone and—

"Oh yes," the doctor nodded his head knowingly. "I'm not sure the exact prompt you're referring to, but he used a phrase like that often. Did it have anything to do with fruits without seeds?" he inquired.

Naruto nodded. "In this he says a pitless peach."

Kabuto nodded. "When I asked him about that—since he'd written it so often—he told me that the fruit was the earth…and that the pit was its core—a core that, by his standards, doesn't exist. He said something else existed there. He said it was where all the monsters were, when they weren't with him."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You mean like…Hell?" he asked carefully.

Kabuto made a un-committing gesture with his hands. "Every time I would mention Hell, he would say "not as you know it" or something similar to that."

Naruto tilted his head. "Was Gaara…_religious_? I mean…his dad was a pastor and all—"

"I couldn't tell you." The man said regrettably. "But I don't…" he paused, looking for the words in the far side wall. "I can't say that he was or wasn't because he never really spoke as if he was the type. And when religion came up, he brushed it off the same way he did when I asked about school and his siblings.I can tell you that he was near fluent in latin, however. At least that's how it came across. I believe it came from having to read old bibles and such..." he trailed off, and looked at an old looking clock in the back of the room.

"Latin?" Naruto asked, incredulously. "How can you say that casually? A six year old kid knew _latin_?"

Kabuto shrugged. "I grew up learning a bit. I was in a religious family as well. But I didn't keep it up very well. Most of the latin I know is what I've retained from school, not what I grew up with."

Naruto shook his head. He failed Latin in high school, and Gaara was apparently fluent in the first grade.

"It really is no great feat." Kabuto continued, adding more injury to Naruto's pride. "Many children grow up bilingual these days-"

"But he was six years old." Naruto said.

Kabuto shook his head. "You seem to forget that I had treated Gaara for almost six years. He was going into the sixth or seventh grade when he was out of my hands. Think of Gaara as a very intelligent pre-adolescent, instead of a child now."

"Yeah, but latin isn't even a living language, anymore." Naruto countered. "It's rarely even spoken, so he must have studied quite a bit."

"Or just read the bible a lot." Kabuto suggested with a shrug. "It really isn't uncommon. One hundred years ago we'd all be fluent in Latin-if we were Christians."

Naruto waved a hand, dismissing the subject and not wanting to get into it. "So Gaara was a smart kid. What about after those two years in jail? Do you have any idea what he was like in high school or something? And how could he have kept up with his studies and been allowed in high school after being in jail for murder for two years?"

Kabuto shook his head sadly. "I wish I could tell you, but Gaara was out of my hands by then. He wasn't even allowed back home. He stayed in a foster home for a while, and was escorted to school every day by his legal foster guardian."

"And you have no idea why he might have killed all those people in that school?" Naruto asked, dismayed.

"No, I'm sorry. I know he was very intelligent and did well throughout." he said. "Gaara was home schooled for two years after he was released however. I believe he was also under strict house arrest for a time. By the time he entered Mushroom Tech through a sort of placement test, he was in the tenth grade."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "So he killed people he only knew for a two years?"

Kabuto shook his head hesitantly. "Two years is a long time. It might sound like nothing because you probably spent four years getting to know your classmates, but anything could happen in that amount of time..."

"Yeah, but these are human lives we're talking about. Seventy five of them."

Kabuto nodded, but gave Naruto a smile that said he could do nothing about it. "What happened happened. And, to tell you the truth, I don't think it will do you any good to find a motive. Gaara was...unstable. If he has reasons...they probably wouldn't make sense to you."

"Whether they make sense or not, I still want to know what they are." Naruto countered, determined.

Kabuto sighed and gave the blonde a helpless look. "You've read the reports on the massacre haven't you? It says that Gaara showed no signs of any malice towards his classmates. He ignored them, and they ignored him. Teachers were warned of his past, so they were careful with him, and by the time graduation year came around, Gaara was just a regular kid with a dangerous past."

Naruto frowned. He read a bit about how Gaara didn't show any signs that he was ready to murder his entire graduating class, but he doubted Gaara earned any title towards _normalcy_ simple because he chose to ignore people.

"The newspapers, for a time, said Gaara was jealous that he hadn't received the title as Valedictorian in his school."

"_What_?" Naruto asked, raising his eyebrows.

Kabuto nodded. "Gaara would have been in the running, since he had one of the top grades, but he was immediately disqualified for the title, since he didn't spend all four years in the high school."

"That..." Naruto started slowly. "is ridiculous."

Kabuto laughed softly. "Yes, it is. Someone like Gaara would never care about something like that."

Naruto sat up, suddenly remembering who the valedictorian of the school was.

"Do you know if Gaara spoke to anyone in the school at all? Maybe the Valedictorian himself?"

Kabuto looked at him helplessly. "I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about that. And the sad part is, it will be difficult to investigate because anyone who could have told you about Gaara during his days in high school...is dead. He killed students _and_ teachers."

Naruto inwardly cursed. The doctor was right. It was like all evidence towards the man's behavior was wiped out, the memory of him lost in dead brain cells, all tucked up in graves.

"Damn..." The blonde cursed, lightly.

"I hate to rush you," Kabuto said lightly. "But I have an appointment in about fifteen minutes, and I'd like to prepare a bit before my patient arrives. I know you could spend all day looking at those files…"

Naruto looked up, dismayed. "You want me to leave?" He really didn't know what to say, or what to think. Kabuto was giving him a bulk of this information, but when it came to finding the core and reason for things, the psychiatrist had nothing to give. Naruto wouldn't say this visit was pointless, but he had hoped he would get more information than this.

Kabuto nodded. "But you could look at the last entry. It's very short. It will give an idea of what he was like right before the murders, I suppose."

Naruto made small sound of agreement and made his way to the very last entry. He passed a few drawings he had to pause at before he got there. They weren't pictures of breastfeeding, or deep wells, but houses on fire, babies flying into the sun, and other strange things. He reached the last page more than a little disturbed and read the entry. It was the neatest he'd seen the handwriting.

February, 1998

_I will be the last one to find out why. He will be the first, always first, and maybe he'll explain before death lulls him to sleep. Maybe he will explain why he has eaten me away, eaten through my middle, inserted between my wit. But middles carry no wit, only circumstance. Motion will give up on me, on him, on my existence, and in the end my dreams will go into happenstance, and there will be nowhere else for me to go, but into the fire. My only fear, is that I will not burn._

There was a light tremor in his hands, as he read the last entry. He set everything back down and closed the portfolio. "T-that was…"

Kabuto nodded sadly. "I know. And to think, he wrote that a mere three days before he murdered his father, and burned his uncle nearly to death."

"And you said his uncle was in a lunatic asylum, right?" Naruto asked quickly, putting the portfolio on the desk, and taking his notepad. "Do you have any idea which one?"

Kabuto folded his hands. "There's only one lunatic asylum in Sound District, and I know that's where he is. Sound District Prison is coincidently also where Gaara was imprisoned…"

Naruto scribbled furiously. He wondered if he could pay that uncle a visit…

"Also," the doctor said. "I'm not sure if this will be of any help, but I know Gaara's sister still lives in Suna. I can't tell you exactly where, but you might find her. I visited once, in hopes of getting answers. I didn't get anything then, but maybe you can now."

Naruto wrote more on his notepad. He wasn't sure how Gaara's sister would help him, but he would keep the information in mind. When he was done, he looked up at the doctor, smiled and stood up. Kabuto stood up as well, and went around the desk to shake his hand. He looked like he did when Naruto had first arrived. Cautious, uncomfortable, and a bit apprehensive.

"A pleasure…" he murmured.

"Uhm, yeah." Naruto said back. "This has helped me a lot. I feel like I know a lot more about Gaara…but there's still more I need to know. I might visit his uncle."

Kabuto narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sure how that would do you any good. He's an insane man now. Only nonsense will come out of his mouth…"

Naruto pursed his lips in thought. "I should see him anyway," he said after a while. "He might tell me what you couldn't tell me about his home life and the relationship he had with the members of his family…"

Kabuto shrugged. "I suppose you can."

They let each other's hands go, and Naruto stood in front of the doctor awkwardly. "Ah…I guess I'll take my leave. Uhm—thank you again."

"Anytime…" Kabuto said slowly, putting his hands behind his back. "But before you go," he started, when Naruto made it to the door. "I just want to ask…Did you…_tell_ a lot of people that you were on your way here? Did you…make plans beforehand…or store this date in a place where…others would know where you would be…?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. It was an awkwardly stated question, but he thought the man was asking if anyone else knew he was here. "Uhm…I decided I would come here this very morning." He said lightly. "No one really knows…" he didn't want to mention Kakashi, just in case Kabuto would get freaked out or something.

To his surprise the doctor suddenly looked sick.

"Are you alright?"

Kabuto shook his head. "I'm…I'm fine. I just…" he shook his head. "I-I have a meeting. It was a pleasure talking to you. Please go."

Naruto blinked. "Uhm…okay?" He opened the door.

"Oh, and Mr. Uzumaki," Kabuto said, stopping the blonde once again.

"What?"

"Do you...do you think I am forgiven?" he asked quickly.

Naruto blinked. "Forgiven for what?"

Kabuto blinked back, looking lost, before shaking his head. "Forget it." he said softly.

"Uhm..."

Kabuto looked at him with grave eyes then. "I don't know…what your higher-ups were thinking when they hired a beginner to find information on Gaara…but I'm telling you this now: get away from this while you still can. Drop the case, or whatever it is detectives do." His eyes turned very dark. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

Naruto paused at the door. He felt a shiver like fingers going up his spine. He swallowed. "Uhm…" he contemplated saying something, but thought against it. Instead he nodded his head and stepped out of the room, high tailing it to the elevator before Kabuto decided he wanted to say something else creepy.

When he was on the first floor, the woman he'd spoken to was still at the desk, and she stopped whatever she was doing to look at him with wary eyes as he passed by.

"Uhm, thank you." He said anyway. "For helping me earlier." He put the wooden pass she'd given him earlier on her desk.

The woman said nothing back. She didn't even nod. She actually flinched when the blonde spoke, and lowered her head without taking her eyes off Naruto's form, exiting the building.

Naruto shivered.

The place was so freaking creepy.

When he got into Kakashi's car, he put his chin to the wheel, and thought for a moment. Should he go back home, or go visit a particular uncle at an asylum?

After a few moments of contemplation, Naruto decided it would be best to save that trip for another day. He didn't even really know where the asylum was—not to mention the amount of gas he had left in the tank.

Naruto shook his head. So he was going home now.

He felt for the notepad in his pocket.

At least he wasn't going home _completely_ empty handed.

* * *

In a cool, dark room, with off-white walls, grey cabinets, and a timid mahogany desk, Dr. Kabuto Yakushi sits in his chair, shaking.

He has cancelled his appointments for the day.

He has told the receptionist not to transfer any calls.

He thinks about going home.

But he does not want to go home.

He does not know what he will find there.

Dr. Kabuto Yakushi wipes a shaking hand across his forehead, and takes a deep breath.

Should he have told him? he ponders, thinking back on the blonde boy.

The detective.

Should he have told him?

Dr. Kabuto Yakushi shakes his head, miserable.

He should have.

He _should_ have.

Then the detective would know, how doomed it all was.

How doomed _he_ was.

Dr. Kabuto Yakushi fiddles into his left pocket, and takes out a note. It is on a thin piece of paper, carefully folded into several folds until it is nothing but a tiny square.

Dr. Kabuto Yakushi places the note on the table, and watches as it unfolds, painfully slow, fold my fold, unraveling itself until the note lays illegible for the knotted creases that hide the words.

But that doesn't matter.

Because he knows what it says.

_He was in my dreams. Entirely human, not machine. He has impostered himself a detective and he will roll in with the dawn. He will want what you have acquired through sacrifice at the expense of nothing. He is infinite noise, and I bring infinite silence, to which I find unwilling to exercise to his infinity. Withhold nothing. Let him know me. And you will be forgiven._

* * *

End of Chapter

**Author's Notes**

**Word Count: **14, 600!

_I'm so excited; _**the moment you've been waiting for is coming**! The next chapter will be separated into **three parts,** and on the second part (drum roll please)...**Naruto meets Gaara**! I can't reveal how or in what context, but I'm so excited to write it, and have you guys read it. I'm in the process of writing it write now, and I ask for** two weeks** TOPS to finish this baby (the chapters not the story).

If you have a few questions, please don't hesitate to ask so I can clarify any weird information.

Also, a quick note since it might come up a lot in the next chapter: this story takes place in an imaginary world with imaginary settings (and some real settings) that are _based_ on real places all over the world. So you might hear terms like Northern-sect (Naruto's part of the country (wherever that country may be)) and Southern-sect, and other places that I've manipulated from the Naruto-verse, like Sound, Mist, Leaf, and so on.

I hope this update came quickly enough for you guys. Now off to write the next one! My goal is five chapters for the summer time; we shall see how it goes.

Thanks for reading,

Tschüss.


	11. The Other Kind of Monster

**Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Eleven: We Meet at Last Part One: _The Other Kind of Monster _

* * *

When Naruto startled to consciousness it was to the sound of four rapid knocks to his door.

He was usually a heavy sleeper, but the past few days…

"Coming…" he mumbled, dazed, as he stood up from his make-shift bed. He knew the person behind the door wouldn't hear him, but he didn't repeat himself. Instead he walked shirtless to answer.

But it seemed he didn't have to walk. He simply appeared there. Facing it. He willed himself to be, and he was. In front of it. The door.

He undid the locks with the same un-enthusiasm that carried him there and rested his head on the wall side of the hinges as he opened it. "mm'hello…?" he murmured, sighing. He didn't know what time it was, but it had to be early. Maybe six or seven in the morning. Every thought that told him to look out the window and check the height of the sun was batted away with his heavy haziness and fatigue.

He could barely keep his eyes open.

So he kept them closed.

"mm' hello?" he murmured again; no one answered the first time. Again it sounded like "mello" instead of "hello"—a mellow hello.

"mello?"

Still no answer.

Naruto shook his head. When he opened his eyes, it wasn't to look outside the door, but to look at his hands that lay flat on the wall next to the door.

His hand. Only he couldn't see it very well. Blurry. Blurred. They were blurred hands. Blurry like vision behind smudged glasses, or eyesight with that first developing moisture on the bottom rim of the eyelids.

He squinted at them. His hands. And tried to understand them, tried to understand why he couldn't…

_See_.

"I…"

"_Uzumaki Naruto_."

Naruto stood still for a moment. Then there was a shiver.

It sighed through his body like knuckles caressing his cheek. A breath escaped his lips and he had to lean his head against the wall. He wasn't holding the door anymore.

Someone was taking care of that.

Someone.

Someone.

Some someone. Someone was. Who was. Someone was. Someone who was somone who was someone taking care of someone who was some someone in his apartment in his room on his _bed_—

"_Uzumaki Naruto_."

Taking care of that.

Naruto opened his eyes. He was in his room, staring up. Not at the ceiling, but into his eyes.

His eyes.

Eyes. Not his. His. His eyes.

Naruto blinks. But he doesn't understand.

He is on the ground. Holding onto…?

Eyes. His eyes. Those eyes. Those eyes that stare—

"_Uzumaki Naruto_."

"Haaah…"

That shiver-sigh, sigh-shiver through his spine mind body soul soul body mind and soul shiver—

"U…zu…ma…ki…" That is himself. Replication failed. Question: why? Answer: he knows you more than you know yoursel—

"_Uzumaki Naruto_."

Naruto opens his eyes.

He doesn't remember when he closed them.

And now he stares.

And he stares back.

Stares.

Green to blue to blue to green to tan to white to blonde to red to red to red to red—

Like clockwork—

"_Uzumaki Naruto_."

"Haaah…"

"_We meet at last_."

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes.

And was met with the ceiling of his bedroom.

"What the…"

He sat up from his make-shift bed and rubbed his aching eyes.

What the hell had that been? He stared accusingly at his feet.

A dream?

A sound alerted him from his living room.

Four rapid knocks to his front door.

Naruto felt his breath hitch, and he didn't really understand why.

That dream had been so…

He couldn't really remember it. It was all…hazy and…

Another knock.

"Naruto!"

The blonde jumped again, before he let out an annoyed sigh, more at himself then anyone else. It was Kakashi's voice behind the door.

"Are you awake?"

"Coming!" he shouted back, standing up from his bed and making his way towards door. He was about to leave his room without his shirt, but he put one on just before he made that mistake again.

Last time he came to the door without a shirt Kakashi teased him about it even after he'd put it on.

"Were you sleeping?" Kakashi asked, walking into the room with a small smile. He patted the blonde on the shoulder and leaned against the wall of his living room like he owned the place. "This came in the mail for you." He said, handing Naruto a large box.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at it a he took it. "Mail?" he asked himself. "I've never gotten one before—besides the Chinese Food menus and Jehovah Witness stuff…"

He made a move to open it, but Kakashi held a hand up. "You aren't going to check where it's from first?" he asked with a raise of an eyebrow.

Naruto mumbled in agreement and checked the return address. He frowned. "It doesn't have a return address…" he said slowly.

Kakashi took the box from him and checked as well. "That's strange. I'm surprised they would send a box without that."

"They don't." Naruto said, with his eyes narrowed. "I worked for a post office for a while. Never seen a mail go out without a return address, and if anything was misspelled, it didn't go out at all…"

Kakashi shrugged and gave him back the box. "Maybe it was sent from a very laid back post-office."

Naruto doubted that, but accepted the explanation. He shook the box then, and nothing moved inside of it. It wasn't particularly heavy, but it felt like there was something solid in there.

He would have to open it then. He placed it on the counter of his kitchen and began pulling at the tape that held the box closed.

"Careful…" Kakashi murmured behind him.

Naruto eased up a bit on his pulling, and made sure he opened the box cleanly. When he did open it, he stared at the contents with a frown.

It was a small envelope, sitting on top of bubble wrap.

"Uhm…" Naruto started, picking the envelope up and turning to face Kakashi.

The gray haired man raised an eyebrow. "They had to send that in a box?"

Naruto smiled nervously. "Maybe it's a letter from the president." He said, grinning at the tiny thing. He opened it carefully, as not to rip the contents on the inside, and pulled out a small sheet of paper. Actually it was more like a small card—like an invitation. When he looked at the contents on the card, he found that not only was it two measly little words, but that he couldn't understand them.

"What the…?" he asked, turning the card around.

"What is it?" Kakashi asked, taking the card from him.

"It's like in a different language…" Naruto responded, standing next to the man so they could look at the card together.

"Hmm…" the gray haired man hummed, turning the card over as well. "Could it be Spanish?" he asked lowly.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

_Unus donum._

That didn't look like any Spanish he'd ever seen.

"What do you think it means?" he asked.

Kakashi shrugged beside him and stepped back, already bored on the matter. "How about you figure that out after we take this trip to Sound?" he said, smiling at the blonde.

Naruto looked at the card a moment longer before he sighed and pocketed it. He didn't have time for weird mail right now. Kakashi was right, they had to go.

"Let me just…" he said looking around the room for a pair of pants. "…brush my teeth and find something to wear."

"Don't take your time." Kakashi said, already settling himself against the wall. "Iruka expects me home by six this evening."

"That leaves us plenty of time doesn't it?" Naruto asked. "Maybe we can squeeze in the prison along the way…?"

Kakashi shrugged. "We'll see."

* * *

"Are you sure it's safe to be doing something like this?" Iruka asked again, before giving Naruto and Kakashi another worrisome look. "I mean…I don't know very much about what's going on, but I've seen what he's capable of, and I don't want you two getting hurt…"

Kakashi gave his partner another smile, before he stepped up to Iruka and grabbed a hold of his sides. "It will be fine." He murmured to the man, bringing him close.

Naruto, who stood behind Kakashi and in front of their car, suddenly felt uncomfortable. He became very aware that they were outside, and in public, and that anyone could see the two men being affectionate with each other. Naruto cursed himself then, because he was being an idiot. Who was he to be embarrassed for them? It was an insult not only to Kakashi and Iruka, but Kiba and Shino.

Naruto took a pause in his thoughts when he realized that he hadn't seen his friend in a very long time. He wanted to, very badly, tell the dog-boy what was going in his life, but he couldn't. It would be unfair to bring someone innocent into all of this, and Shikamaru had warned him that once Gaara knew you, he knew everyone who knew you, as well. Naruto sighed and shook his head.

_Gaara. _Naruto still felt the same kind of fear knotting on the bottom on his stomach, when he thought of him, but it was a feeling that he would associate with a dream. It was like Gaara was a boogeyman that parents insisted didn't exist, but brought fear anyway. Naruto couldn't imagine ever meeting the man. He could imagine coming home and having an ax swipe his head clean off, and he could imagine waking up and exploding into a million pieces because of a trap Gaara somehow set the night before in his own home, but he couldn't imagine ever meeting the man face to face.

Kurenai said Gaara was 6'1. That was two inches taller than he was, so it would make him _loom_. Naruto shivered at the thought.

And the identity of the redhead was still sort of unknown for the time being, Naruto thought. No one knew for sure if he had retained his brown hair, or if he had dyed it red. Hell, for all anyone knew Gaara was a blonde now. Whatever it was, the man hid himself well. Now that the blonde really thought about it, how could anyone know if Gaara was even in the city anymore?

The only thing they knew for sure was that the murderer was somehow involved in some kind of grand scheme. Naruto had no idea what it was, and had no idea where to look first. All he knew was that he wanted all the information he could get on Gaara and his past life. He didn't know why, but he felt like it was a good place to start. It was like an attempt to understand him better.

"Kakashi! We're in _public_." Naruto heard Iruka hiss at his partner, before shoving himself backwards and away from the gray haired man. "I will see you when you get home." Iruka said, through gritted teeth, his face red.

He turned to leave then, and Kakashi waved at the man's back, before turning to face Naruto, a lazy smile on his face.

Naruto squinted at him. "Uhm…are we ready to go?" he asked carefully.

"Of course." Kakashi said happily, before going on the street to reach his car door.

Naruto got on the passengers side, and put on his seatbelt. "Are we taking the local route or the express route?" he asked.

Kakashi looked ahead in contemplation. "I would like to take it express all the way through until we reach the asylum, but Sound doesn't have any routes like that, and all highways leading to that city stop short _of_ the city or are reserved for commercial and government transportation."

"So we'll be driving locally for an hour then…" Naruto sighed, dismayed. Just like the Mental Hospital was at the end of Mushroom City, the Sound Lunatic Asylum was at the end Sound City, closer to the countryside.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "It's Sunday morning. I doubt there will be enough traffic for us to be driving too long." Kakashi started the car as he said that, and slowly eased himself out of the parking spot.

"Is Sound City really as notorious as everyone says it is?" Naruto asked, when they were on the express route leaving Mushroom City behind. They would have to cross Mist City, and a bit of Cloud before they would reach Sound.

"It depends on how notorious _they_ say it is." Kakashi said, shrugging. "If you want statistics, Sound has the highest crime rate in all of Northern-sect."

"Higher than Mushroom?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Most definitely. Mushroom has its fair share of criminality, but that's because it is a competitive city to get along in, and if you mess up along the way, you could be homeless or be forced to resort to criminal measures to survive. Sound on the other hand, has no hope of competing economically, despite its urban structure. Not to sound offensive, but it's like the Slum version of Mushroom, with poor kept housing complexes, and very desperate civilians."

"Hmm…" Naruto said, wiping his mouth with a lazy thumb. "That doesn't seem very…fair."

"It's the way things are." Kakashi replied. "You can't have people at the top, without others suffering on the bottom."

Naruto stayed quiet for several moments, reflecting on that. He shook his head. He didn't like it at all.

"Also," Kakashi started, "Sound is the only city in Northern-sect that has such a large prison. Most punishment facilities are in the country-side."

"Sound Prison is practically on the countryside, though." Naruto countered.

The gray haired man shook his head. "It's half and half. You'll see what I mean when we get there, but Sound Prison takes up an enormous part of the downtown area of the city, and extends towards unmarked ground from behind."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, not really understanding what Kakashi meant, but he supposed he would understand later when he saw the facility for himself.

"I also heard that Sound Prison's maximum security is top of the league." He said quietly. "No one's ever escaped before. Not before Gaara."

Kakashi, to the blonde's surprise, let out a small chuckled. "Yeah…" he said with an amused shake of his head. "Do you know how he did it?"

"I was going to ask you. There are some reports online, but they all say different things."

Kakashi nodded. "I expect the prison doesn't really want to publicize their failure…" he said.

When he said nothing after that, Naruto made a small noise.

Kakashi seemed to come to himself, and 'ahem'ed. "Right. How he escaped. It's actually a funny story," he said, sounding genuinely amused. "Kaze poisoned himself."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "How did he do that? And what did it accomplish?"

"From what I hear," Kakashi replied, "It was a very elaborate and coordinated escape. There were witnesses and accomplices."

"_Accomplices_?" Naruto asked, incredulously. "Who would…" then Naruto paused. He was talking about prison mates, here. Why would they have any qualms about a fellow inmate escaping?

"When asked about it, those accomplices said that Kaze promised that they would escape too." Kakashi clarified. "So it was a team thing, although I'm sure it was all orchestrated by Kaze."

"What was the plan exactly?"

Kakashi smiled again, looking amused. "It was a complicated one, I think, that involved a lot of bribing. A lot of inside jobs." He said, shaking his head. "Kaze wasn't allowed any privileges in the prison, so a lot of his plan was carried out by people who he'd promised a chance at escape. I'm not so sure of the details, but he made an inmate who was allowed an hour outside make a hole in a part of the building from the outside, using workout tools the prisoners used in the fields. A few days afterwards, though I'm sure there's some information in between that I'm missing, there was a sudden infiltration of _rats_ in a section of the facility. Something like that would never happen in Sound Prison, but Kaze took the fact that it was in a city environment to his advantage and somehow knew where to tell his accomplice to dig, so rats could infest the building." Kakashi was shaking his head with that smile again, as if he still couldn't believe it. "Naturally, top exterminators were called to get rid of them, and Kaze somehow managed to make some sort of concoction using mold and paint from the walls of his cell and arsenic residue left by the exterminators to poison himself."

Naruto looked confused. "Wait, what? Arsenic? Was that the poison?"

Kakashi nodded. "Rat exterminators sometimes use arsenic to get the job done. Although I thought they ceased the practice a while ago…I'm guessing the abundance of rats was so bad that they had to use drastic measures to kill them."

"And they let prisoners roam around where there was arsenic residue?" Naruto asked, incredulously.

"That's the thing. No one was allowed in that section of the building. That's why some say that Gaara had accomplices in the staff as well. Someone who could go to the restricted area without anyone stopping him, and get samples for Kaze and his accomplices to use."

The blonde narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, Gaara and his accomplices? Did they take the poison too?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. I believe it was a total of four others."

Naruto leaned back in his chair. "Then what? They ate the poison?"

"He ingested it somehow. I'm not sure if he put it in his food, or diluted it in water, but he used mold and peeled paint to mitigate the effects of the poison."

Naruto squinted. "How does that even work?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how a lot of the chemistry stuff works. All I know is that arsenic can kill, and Gaara made it so that he and the others took just enough that they could be sick enough to get taken to the medical center, and not die there."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Was the medical center in the prison, or did they bring them to a hospital?"

"Prisoners don't get taken to hospitals from Sound Prison. You get sick there, you die there. The only thing they could do was make sure to keep the four of them away from the other prisoners. They were cared for, I suppose, by the medics they could offer, but other than that they were on their own. I think one of the accomplices might have died, but I'm not sure."

"How did Gaara escape, in the end?" Naruto asked, trying to keep impatience out of his voice.

"He, and the others, weren't kept in their cells while they were sick. They were kept in a single room together, which was located at the basement of the facility. This is how sound usually takes care of their sick people.

There were at least six security officials on duty, watching the door of the room they were in but when asked about it the next day, they claimed to not have _seen_ Kaze and the others exiting the room and headed for a closed underground mining route leading to the Sound sewers."

"Wait—an underground route? Why did it exist under the prison? And how could the guards not see them leaving?"

"My guess is that Kaze bribed them. I don't know what he could have said—security in Sound Prison is top of the league, as you said—but he managed to bribe them to stay put while he and his accomplices fled. This is just my guess, but I really don't see any way that Kaze could get passed them with stealth alone.

"Now the closed underground route was some sort of jagged path that was dug by prisoners more than seventy years ago. It was a sort of mindless punishment then, but there were too many accidents with the prisoners dying due to falling rocks and unpredictable cave-ins. The digging has long since been replaced with moving rocks pointlessly from one place to another. What remains of the underground route is just a useless tunnel leading to an old sewage canal. It leads to the Mecon Sea—the one contaminated with litter and feces from the _working_ sewage tunnels dumping their filth into it. "

"And Gaara made it out there, and was free?" Naruto asked.

"Not exactly. Security guards suddenly "came to their senses" and began chasing Kaze. The main reason why I think the guards were in on Gaara's escape, is because instead of flaying all over the place to try to find him once they realized he was gone, they concentrated on one place—the sea dump."

Naruto nodded, taking it all in. That did seem peculiar. How could they have known that that was the place where Gaara was going to be if they'd not already known it themselves? But still, "Couldn't they have just been lucky, or somehow gotten a sign that Gaara had left for the underground tunnel, and knew where to go because of it?"

Kakashi shook his head. "And what sign would that be? Even if that was the case, they wouldn't be sure. There would be others going other places to find him—but no, there was a tip off, and everyone went to the sea dump."

"But they obviously didn't find him, considering Gaara is on the loose now…"

"They didn't find him. Kaze somehow managed to swim through the contaminated waters to civilization along with two of the others. The other drowned. Police found him with a mouth of feces floating face first in the sea."

Naruto swallowed with a bit of difficulty at that. "So…Gaara, and two others escaped that day?"

"Well," Kakashi said, that small smile returning, "one of the men he escaped with was found almost beaten to death in a gang fight he'd somehow gotten involved merely two days after escaping. He was caught and jailed. And maybe a little over a week after that, there was a series of rapes in Downtown Mist and policemen finally caught up with the other one. So both those men are in jail right now, if not dead."

Naruto grimaced. Although he was relieved that the two offenders were in jail, he was disgusted that Gaara had even helped them escape in the first place.

"So yeah," said Kakashi. "That's the story. There was a frantic search for months, but Kaze hid himself well. I guess…now that more than a year has passed, a lot of people have forgotten about it, but it's good that we're picking up a trail now. We can't have a guy like that running the streets forever."

"But that's the thing." Naruto said, turning to face the gray haired man. "Virtually no one knows how serious the situation is, because the police won't give out any details on this investigation. I feel like people should know that there is a search for Gaara, and that they should all be alert, and ready to fend for themselves!"

"Ha," Kakashi laughed, softly. "Iruka feels the same way. But if there's one thing I've learned about telling the public anything scary, is that they start to panic. Organized groups will start rising up to do their protesting, vigilante type groups are going to start doing their own investigations, sites will pop up with fake sightings and villain worship—it's just chaos. Now I understand that the way the police have run things haven't been the best way, but trust me when I say, it's better that the public has no idea what's going on. It makes the playing field more even."

Naruto pursed his lips, thinking about that. "How is that a level playing field?"

Kakashi smiled. "A brilliant man who knows everything, versus a dozen men with their tails between their legs. Sounds pretty level to me." he let out a small laugh, but Naruto didn't share his humor.

"But imagine if that was a million men." he said seriously. "What if people knew what they were dealing with and—"

"But Naruto, even _we_ don't know what we're dealing with. Even if our manpower increased, it would be a blind force, motivated more by fear than actual knowledge. And, if my experience with past criminals counts for anything, the more people start knowing about him, the more secretive his actions will be, and the harder it will be to find him. I feel like now, when he only has us to look out for, he will drop his guard at least once, and leave a clue that will lead us to him, or, if we're lucky, his motive."

"Hmm." Naruto hummed under his breath. He felt like catching Gaara was going to be a million times easier than understanding his motive for all of this." "I…" he started, "I just feel so vulnerable." He confessed. "And useless."

Kakashi shook his head. "You're not even a police officer, and you're doing more work then the actual officers are. That's not useless."

Naruto nodded regrettably. "Yeah, sometimes I feel that way, but other times I feel like I'm just sticking my nose somewhere it doesn't belong, you know? I feel like this is all for nothing…But then I remember that no one else is doing anything, and that something, no matter how worthless, is probably better than nothing."

"You trying to understand Kaze is good, especially considering this thing about him knowing everything. The other policemen are waiting on Kurenai's report comparing the original Sasori Akasuna and the original Kaze. They don't want to do anything until they know for sure of things."

"Are they at least preparing for another attack anyway?" Naruto asked with urgency. "Do they have people still investigating how the hell Gaara or Sasori managed to kill all those people in your building?"

Kakashi nodded. "They're doing what they can, but there's only so much they can do with the information they've gathered."

"Hmm." Naruto hummed to himself, unsatisfied.

"I don't know Naruto," Kakashi sighed against the wheel. "I feel like you're an important part of all of this, whatever it is. I know it's silly, but I feel like there's a reason for your involvement. How is it that the building you chose to live in just happened to be right across from someone so notorious? How is it that that building just happened to belong to someone involved with the police force? How is that, Sasuke and Sakura and the other woman, all happened to be your friends, Naruto? Doesn't that make you think?"

Naruto blinked at the traffic ahead. He…he never really thought about it terms of coincidence before. But now that he thought about it…it really was plausible wasn't it? That he was somehow connected to all of this…

But Naruto shook his head. "But what reason would I have for being involved in this?" he asked. "I didn't even know about the whole Gaara thing when he murdered those kids in Mushroom…"

"It's not what reason you have—it's what reason Kaze has. If he has one." He added quickly, feeling the distress coming from Naruto's side.

Naruto narrowed his eyes ahead. "I…" he didn't know what to think. How could he possibly have a hand at this? He was simply an innocent civilian trying (and probably failing) to learn something that would help him catch his enemy.

"Don't think too much about it." Kakashi said, reassuringly. "I may have spoken out of line."

"No, no." Naruto said quickly, giving the gray haired man a weak smile. "I just…it's kind of weird to think that I'm involved in something this big, you know? It's usually Sasuke that gets this kind of attention…" he trailed off, his heart sinking a bit. Thinking about Sasuke made him think about Sakura, who he knew was missing right now.

Kakashi said nothing for long moments, before he spoke. "This is bigger than Sasuke." He said quietly.

Naruto nodded reluctantly, and continued to stare ahead. He didn't really want to talk anymore.

* * *

The rest of the ride had mostly been in silence, save for Naruto asking a few questions about directions, and the plan they had for today. They had decided earlier that they would visit the asylum first, and if they had time, go to the prison to ask a select few of prisoners what they knew about Gaara when he was kept there. They weren't sure how it would work out in the prison, but Kakashi had made sure to contact the Asylum to tell them they were coming, and for which patient they were coming for. They'd been happy to comply.

Sound District was an array of tall buildings and poor housing complexes, and the asylum was at the south-end of it, surrounded by gates and things. Kakashi said that the Prison was the same thing, on the north side. Naruto thought those were weird things to pole the District with. A prison and an asylum.

Naruto and Kakashi were able to park inside the gates, after they'd told the security official outside that they had an appointment. The security must have been pretty lax, because the man simply nodded, told them specific directions and let them in. They parked where the man had told them to park, and made their way inside of the not tall, but very wide building. If Naruto had to guess, he would say that the topography of the building would show a massive twisting thing, instead of the usual square shape. At least that's what he thought from looking at the place from the outside.

He and Kakashi made their way towards the building, side-stepping a few puddles on the way. When they entered, they were met two of security officials, who asked them questions about their visit.

"Are you Mr. Kakashi of the police department?" asked one of them, looking uninterested in his spot behind the desk.

When Naruto looked around, he saw that the place was even more depressing than the Mental Hospital. The walls were a dark brown color, complemented with a few intervals of an off-white, while the hallway ahead seemed to get darker and darker, promising doom towards the end. Naruto shook his head. These people were already insane, he thought; there was no need to make their lives more miserable by putting them in such a sad place. But he supposed Sound District was no place of comfort.

"Yes, I am."

"You the guys here to see Yashamaru?" asked the woman standing next to the man, leaning against a wall casually.

Kakashi nodded again, and smiled for good measure. The woman snorted and stepped out from behind the large desk—which Naruto couldn't really call a desk since it was more like a barrier that went up to his chest, and had surveillance televisions littering the walls from behind it. Naruto saw what looked like rooms in each screen, and a few hallways and other desks all around the building.

"Your guy ain't up there." The woman said, coming up next to Naruto.

Naruto jumped, a bit startled at the woman's closeness. The woman smirked from the side, and nodded to the blonde. "Those guys up there," she said pointing to the screens behind the desk. "aren't your guy. Those guys are criminals. People unfit for society, and should be in jail, but because their heads weren't quite right, they get sent here instead. To make the gov'tee feel better."

"The gov tee…?" Naruto asked slowly.

"The government." Kakashi replied from beside him. "I suppose if Kaze had pleaded insanity he would have ended up here…" he mused looking around. "And under surveillance like those guys, I bet." He said, pointing to the televisions.

The man who'd spoken first nodded his head. "Yeah, your guy ain't a criminal. Hasn't really done anything since he's been here. Just depressed all the damn time."

"What do you mean?"

The man shrugged, "He don't say much and he don't do much. Follows directions. That's more than I can say than for most of the damn people stuck in here."

Naruto stuttered a bit. "Well…what do you guys do about that depression? Does he get any help?"

"Don't know, don't really care. We've got people who talk to these guys everyday, but if he's been here for this many years and is still the same way he was in the beginning, I'm sure they've given up on him by now." The man replied. "He's a shy little thing, that one. Sometimes he goes on these weird rants…" he said lightly, shrugging his shoulders. "He's still scared all the time, though. But what do you expect? You know what his nephew did to him, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, we know all about that."

The man seemed to be looking for something around the desk. "Let me get the visiting passes…You guys have been the first to visit him in a while. I think his niece visited once, when he first got here. And I only remember that 'cuz she was so _damned_ ugly—"

The bulky woman next to him snorted a laugh, and punched him in the shoulder. The man absorbed the blow easily, but Naruto felt like if he was faced with that punch, he would fly to the other side of the room.

"When he first got here?" Naruto bit the inside of his lip, disturbed by that, "I would have killed myself by now. How long has he been here? Fifteen years?"

The man and woman looked at each other. "Maybe a little less…" the man replied non-committedly. "I told him he was getting a visitor this morning. Got all excited. He's a weirdo that one."

Naruto shivered a bit. A weirdo, huh. He wasn't so sure he wanted to deal with a weirdo right now. All he wanted was answers.

But he had to admit he felt bad for the guy. And not in a reluctant way either. This man was cheated out of his life. He was burned brutally by a child, and went insane afterwards, so he didn't even have a chance to attempt a normal life. And Naruto didn't really know how that would be possible considering the damage his nephew did to him.

"Let's see him, then." Kakashi said. "We kind of have plans for later today…"

"Don't rush us, mister." The woman next to Naruto said, with a smirk. "This is an insane asylum. We don't get to talk to normies a lot of the time. Beginning to think we're insane ourselves—"

"Enough." The man from the counter said, chuckling. "Don't mind her. We've just been working here too long. Now," he said rummaging through something Naruto couldn't see behind the wall/desk. "You guys don't have a time limit, but don't go crazy. An hour tops." he handed over two passes that looked similar to the ones Naruto received at the Mental Hospital.

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked, taking the passes.

"Well, in a place like this, visits are like the greatest reward for nearly everyone, so if anyone falls out of line we punish them by lessening their visiting hours, or giving them less food, stuff like that…"

Naruto hummed in understanding. "And he's never assaulted anyone…?"

The man shook his head "Nope." He said casually. "Guy couldn't hurt a fly. But that doesn't mean anything. He's still a freak who can't get his head together, so we're stuck here watching over the bastard."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at that. "What do you mean? This is your job. These people can't help it if they've got a few head screws loose…"

The man stopped what he was doing to look up at Naruto. He raised an eyebrow, "What you some kind of human activist for the damned, or some shit?"

Naruto blinked. "What? What does that even…?"

"Hold on a second." The man said, smirking condescendingly. "Are you another one of those civil rights guys?" he asked suspiciously. "Come to protest the conditions of "patients" in a place like this?"

Naruto looked taken aback for a moment. "Wh-…" he paused and looked at Kakashi. The gray haired man was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and the ghost of a smirk on his own face. It was similar to the one Naruto saw when he confessed he posed as a detective to Kabuto. The ex-policeman probably thought Naruto was going to take up the title as a "civil rights guy" now. He glared at him.

"N-no." he said turning back to the man behind he desk. "I just…I don't think anyone should be…" he looked at Kakashi for answers, and the man infuriatingly shrugged with that same getting-there smirk on his face. "…blamed for something they can't…help…" he ended lamely.

The man didn't seem to hear him. Instead he went back to his shuffling with a shake of his head. "You've got that look in your eyes. Like a good for nothin' kid stickin' his nose everywhere. Probably some amateur reporter."

Naruto made a sound like a child choking, but it was only him at a loss for words. ""I—I'm not—It's—"

"What he's trying to say is," Kakashi said, stepping in majestically, "We just want to see him, ask a few questions, and leave. We have an hour, right?"

"I'll give you forty five minutes." The man said. "As long as Tatuya can stand by as she watches you guys…" he said with a small chuckle.

Kakashi looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow. Naruto frowned back. Obviously these guys weren't used to having company.

"Will she be escorting us?" Kakashi asked carefully.

The woman smiled wide, showing teeth. "At your service." She said, bowing sarcastically. "My job is to get you past the other folks in one piece. Keep them at bay as you walk through…Taser a few wanderers…" she trailed off, smiling eerily in Naruto's direction.

Naruto blinked and took a step backwards. "Uhm…"

Kakashi took a step ahead and nodded to the woman. "Lead the way miss…?"

The woman blinked and gave Kakashi an uninterested stare. "Tatuya." She said finally. "and you are?" she said turning to the blonde, pointedly ignoring Kakashi all together.

Naruto ignored the chuckle he heard the ex-policeman make, and nodded hesitantly. "Uzumaki Naruto." He said.

The woman grinned, and her light pink-ish hair bobbed as she rolled her shoulders. "Alright then, _Uzumaki_. You're in my hands now." With that, she turned and began walking down the long and ominous hallway ahead.

Naruto gulped. Why was this woman so creepy?

Kakashi tapped him roughly on the back. "She's cute." He murmured into the blonde's ear, chuckling afterwards.

Naruto jabbed him on the sides. He begged to differ.

The hallway they were currently walking down didn't have cells holding criminals like Naruto thought it would. Instead it was just yellowing blank walls, with no signs or indication of where to go. He figured a place like this didn't get enough visitors to have any facilitation towards guests.

"We're going to Section 6E of this beautiful establishment." Tatuya called out from in front of them. "Bit of a walk, if you ask me. You should give me a tip, just to make sure I don't get lost…" she stopped walking, and turned to them with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto and Kakashi looked at her with their own eyebrows raised.

Tatuya gave them a look of impatience and held out a hand, "Well?" she asked.

Kakashi barked a short incredulous laugh while Naruto just narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" the blonde asked.

"Dead serious. Do you have any idea how much this job pays? If some bitch waiting tables can ask for a tip, then so can I."

Kakashi chuckled softly at that. "Section 6E, you said?" he started amused, "I guess we'll have to find our own way, then." He started walking ahead until he passed the Tatuya woman.

Naruto hesitated behind him, before he decided to follow. He agreed that it would be ridiculous to pay the woman, but he didn't want to get lost in this place.

"Are you sure you wanna do that?" the woman asked, crossing her arms. "I guarantee you won't find what you're looking for. Plenty of burned victims in 6E, and even if you made it…" she laughed a bit. "Do you even know what your guy looks like? How would you even get into his locked room?"

Kakashi, who'd been several feet away, paused at that. "Hmm." He said to himself.

Naruto sighed impatiently. "Let's just tip her." He said. "We need to do this already—the suspense is kind of killing me…"

Kakashi turned to look at Naruto with a frown, before he shook his own head and sighed. "Fine."

He went up to the woman, who was looking smug as the gray haired man trudged towards her. "I knew I liked you." She said looking at Naruto, as Kakashi handed her a few bills that Naruto couldn't tell the amount of from his position.

Kakashi looked less than happy giving it to her, and waited with a small scowl as the woman pocketed the bills and began walking again.

"Now," she said with an easy smile. "If you'll just follow me..."

* * *

The walk to the cell had been long and tiring. There were so many twists and turns, and every time it seemed they were almost there, the woman turned another corner to lead them down a different path. The hallways got brighter and brighter as they walked along, Naruto noticed with at least a little satisfaction. It looked like a regular establishment, with people in nurses uniform walking up and down the hallways, looking at Naruto with bemusement and Tatuya with a scowl. There were doors on either side of the halls now. Each one of them a light blue color, with a small window so you could see inside. Naruto walked along the the center of the hall, so he couldn't peak inside any of them, but he figured he would see different kinds of people in each room, disturbed in one way or another.

"Almost there." Tatuya finally called out, when it had been nearly fifteen minutes since they'd started walking. Naruto shook his head. They needed a better system than this. He knew from outside the building was just one story, but it was unacceptable that one had to walk this far to see one patient. Not only that, there were absolutely no signs in sight. How could anyone know where to go in a place like this?

Tatuya suddenly stopped walking, taking Naruto out of his thoughts. She stood in front of a door, the same pale-ish blue as all the others. "Here we are." She said, bored. The walk had taken a toll on her as well.

She unlocked the door with a small click, and knocked on it roughly. "Your visitors are here!" she called out before she swung the door open. She looked at Naruto and Kakashi expectantly, and gestured for them to enter. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Naruto gulped, before he walked towards the door, and turned to step inside.

What he saw was a very white room, no windows or other things on the walls, and a very plain, made bed.

On that bed was a person, with his back turned, hunched in a way that Naruto would think was uncomfortable.

"Uh…Hello…sir?" Naruto said, lightly.

The man visibly flinched in his hunched position, and moved to turn his head.

Naruto felt the suspense building in him as the man turned to reveal himself, and even in that cautious state of mind, he was still unprepared for the face that was revealed to him moments later.

It was _ghastly_.

The face—or what was left of it—was littered with pale intertwining vein like things. They looked like thin white, and red pulsing blisters forming a sort of map that spiraled into his left eye, which Naruto couldn't even see passed a hooded, melted brow. The man was visibly hairless save for the awkward patches of hair that feebly covered certain parts of his scalp, and even that part of his body contained the same vein like blisters.

"A-ah…" Naruto's words were stuck in his throat. The questions he had prepared for the man died in his mouth, and he wondered for the first time if he really even had a right to do this—a right to come into this man's life and ask about the person who hurt him so severely. "_I'm so sorry_," he breathed out in a sad exhale. He knew why he was apologizing, but he still regretted saying it. It was just all the guilt he was feeling at the moment, falling on him like a heavy downpour of rain, or a single wave of heat entering his body from above. "I'm so—" he stopped himself from apologizing again, and shook his head. It would be too much if he said it again. It would reveal how incredibly sorry he was for this man, and he knew that could come off as rude.

Naruto stood in the room for a while longer, clenching and unclenching his fists, contemplating aborting this mission to find out more about Gaara's home life altogether. Maybe he could attempt to find someone less broken, like Gaara's sister or brother…

"You're sorry…"

Naruto visibly started. He opened eyes that he didn't realized he'd closed, and stared wide at the man before him.

He'd fully turned around, and was facing the three people in the room with dead eyes. Naruto didn't know if it was because he felt nothing, or because the burn scars that scanned over his eyes and brows like a web prevented him from showing any true emotion.

"Why do you apologize?" the man asked again. And the voice was soft, forgiving even. Light.

Naruto hesitated. Out of habit he looked at Kakashi, but the man was staring at the man with narrowed eyes, as if he was trying to overcome his own guilt. "I…" the blonde started slowly. "I'm just…I-I came to ask you…a few questions…about your nephew…the one who did this you. But I see now, that that may be…inconsiderate…considering…" Naruto was going to say "your situation", but that was inconsiderate in itself wasn't it?

The burned victim put his head down, and there was a small quirk of his lips, like an attempt at a smile. "Hmm…" he seemed to sigh to himself. He moved to scratch a patch of sickeningly red skin on his neck, and the sound the skin made as his nails scraped against it made Naruto want to vomit.

"I suppose then…that it was too audacious of me to hope. To pray." The man said softly. He played with his fingers for a moment, before looking straight at the wall beside his bed. "You may ask your questions. But will you ask the right ones….I wonder…" He finished, looking down to the sheets on his bed.

Naruto adopted a bemused look, taking a step back in his mind. Did the man just give him permission to question him? And what was with that…mysterious tone? Almost resigned. Condescending.

"I…" Naruto started hesitantly. "Are you sure…this is okay?" he asked lamely. "I mean…I understand if…"

The man shook his head slowly, but said nothing, so Naruto didn't understand.

There were a few moments of silence, before Kakashi nudged him from the side. "Ask him your questions, Naruto." He said, nodding to him.

Naruto nodded back, albeit hesitantly, before turning to face the man again. "Alright," he said more to himself then to anyone else. "You were born Yashamaru Ito in Suna fifty-four years ago, along with your twin Karura Ito, who married Sabako Kaze at age seventeen. They had three children together…and the final one was Gaara Kaze." He paused, looking for any kind of expression on the man's face. Yashamaru showed none, and continued to stare ahead. Naruto wrinkled his nose, more uncomfortable than before, and continued. "I went to see…Gaara's psychiatrist a few days ago. He told me a lot about Gaara, and what he was like…but what he failed to tell me was what he was like at home. I was hoping…that maybe you could help me with that…"

There was a long moment of silence. The burn victim continued to fiddle with his sheets.

"Uhm…Mr. Ito?"

The man blinked very slowly, before he turned to look at Naruto with those hooded eyes. "What brings you here?" he asked softly. "What brought you there? To see the psychiatrist…"

Naruto blinked. "Oh. Right. Well we have reason to believe that Gaara is up to something." He said easily, having rehearsed that line many times. "There have been clues that point towards his whereabouts, but right now he's hiding, and we want to know as much as we can so—"

"Clues?" Yashamaru said, interrupting the blonde. A sad smile appeared on his lips. "Mistake." He said softly.

Naruto said nothing, stuck with his mouth still open. "Uh—"

"Do not…put that film of ignorance over your eyes when it comes to him." the man said, his voice horse. "Or, if you understand your enemy, use the vocabulary that proves that…" he looked away again, and his fingers twitched on his lap. "_Clues_." He repeated, with an inflection akin to disappointment in his voice. "The word suggests that he has made a mistake, a _miscalculation_." He said. "That is not, and never will be the case." He breathed in and let out a small sigh. "And if you tell the truth…and it is really him you're are being led to, then the only reason you are close to his whereabouts, is because he _wants_ to be found." He finished the words lightly, but the content of what he'd said was profound.

"Wh…" Naruto found himself stuttering. "I…what do you mean?" he asked finally.

Yashamaru said nothing again for long moments. "Meaning?" he asked in a distant voice. He blinked slowly. "There is no deeper meaning." He replied. "I said what I meant."

Naruto blinked dumbly, before shaking his head. He didn't know if the man's way of speaking was due to wisdom or insanity. "Right," he said lamely. "Then I guess, I go back to my original question. What can you tell me about what Gaara was like before he…hurt you…"

The man put his head down, more in contemplation then in sadness. "Is it true what you say…" he said, seemingly talking more to himself than Naruto. "One can hope but…would that cause…too much turmoil?" he looked up and stared ahead again, looking sad.

"I'm sorry?" Naruto said loudly, to get Yashamaru out of whatever state he'd put himself in.

Yashamaru looked at him then. "Is he really involved in all of this? Communicating with you?"

Naruto shook his head, "Communicating?" he asked. "I….I don't know about communication," he started slowly. "I just know he's part of something large and we want to catch him before anyone else is hurt…"

Yashamaru to his surprise, frowned at him. "If you're getting closer to him, it means he wants you to get closer." He said, in a voice more direct and less soft. "Understand that. But…why would he want to communicate with you?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. "Who are you to him?"

"I'm sorry?" Naruto asked again, raising an eyebrow. "I told you it isn't communication; we just have evidence that lead us to believe that—"

"You refuse to understand." Yashamaru said lightly, looking away from Naruto and staring at the wall again. "Another mistake."

Naruto didn't know if he was allowed, but he suddenly felt offended. He didn't want to push the man before him, but all he really wanted to know was what kind of life Gaara had at home. "Listen," he began slowly, "All I want to know is what kind of life Gaara—"

"You continue to use his first name." the burn victim said, looking at Naruto again. "How audacious of you." He murmured, looking away again.

Naruto paused, narrowing his eyes.

"I have to admit…" Yashamaru continued. "That despite the…disappointment…it is worth it know that he still roams."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Again…no meaning. I said what I meant to to say." Yashamaru said lightly. It would have sounded like an insult if his voice wasn't so dead.

"Well then tell me something else," Naruto said, trying hard to keep the impatience out of his voice. "Tell me why Gaara nearly burned you to death."

"Ah," the man said, and something like a smile tugged at his lips. He still didn't look at Naruto. "You ask the right question at last…" he murmured, pulling at his white sheets with trembling fingers. "All that remains is my willingness to answer…" he trailed off.

"And why does there need to be a willingness?" Kakashi asked, speaking for the first time. "Why are you tippy-toeing around the question of Gaara's home life like this?"

Naruto turned to look at Kakashi with raised eyebrows. He didn't know for sure but he thought he detected some sort of genuine suspicion in the ex-policeman's tone.

Yashamaru looked at Kakashi with dead eyes before a weak laugh escaped him. "Has he contacted you as well?" he asked softly. "Funny, how he would do a stranger something he has yet to extend to me…"

"Why would he contact you? I doubt Gaara…has any remorse for what he's done." Naruto said softly. "He murdered many others a few years after he did this to you so…"

"He murdered others?" Yashamaru asked looking up quickly. "For what reason?"

"I…" Naruto hesitated. "There is no reason. He did it for nothing."

Yashamaru shook his head. "Gaara does nothing, for nothing. There is always a reason." He whispered.

Naruto bit his lip. He had anticipated having a hard time with this man, simply because he was in an insane asylum, but Yashamaru spoke in a way that Naruto found hard to believe came from insanity. "Why did you get sent here?" he asked suddenly. "Why were you put in this asylum?"

Another sad smile tugged at the man's lips. "Unfit for society, as they say." He replied with a shrug.

"Yes, but what was it exactly that—"

"You're not asking the right questions." Yashamaru said with a tired shake of his head.

"We had the so called right question before." Said Kakashi. "You chose not to answer it."

The man let out another weak laugh. "Yes, you are right about the choice. I did choose. I did…" he nodded his head, then he shook it, as if the previous thought was something he wasn't meant to have. "This will be…my only chance won't it?" he asked, looking up at the three in the room. "I have to face the truth."

"…what truth?"

Yashamaru held his head down cast, and Naruto could see the joint bone at the base of his neck bulging out. "That my Gaara will never…visit me…" he ended softly.

Naruto shivered a bit. My Gaara? What was this man playing at? "Why would you even…_want_ him to visit? When he hurt you the way he did?" he asked seriously. Maybe this man's insanity came from the belief that the boy who burned him so severely would somehow come see him in this place and beg for forgiveness?

Yashamaru didn't answer the question. Instead he continued to stare ahead.

"Maybe it's because he has no one to blame but himself, for what Gaara did to him." Kakashi whispered beside Naruto.

The blonde turned to him in question. Now Kakashi's voice held a sort of conviction, as if he had figured the man out and didn't like what he'd found. "Kakashi? What are you saying?"

"Your friend is perceptive…" Yashamaru said lightly. And again he scratched that angry red patch of skin at the back of his neck.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Perceptive in what way…?" he asked, trying to keep the exasperation from his voice. "Kakashi, what do you mean?"

Kakashi looked up from staring hard at the burn victim and shook his head. "The way he's acting…his mannerisms—it's not the actions of someone genuinely afraid or innocent…" he started. "They're the mannerisms of someone guilty. Someone with a deep secret."

Yashamaru laughed at that, a heart one this time. "Perceptive, your friend is…" he said again. "But still without the upper hand. It is still my choice. Whether to tell…or not to tell…"

"Tell _what_, exactly?" Naruto almost hissed, and this time the impatience seeped through the cracks of his voice.

"What I've done." Yashamaru whispered. "What I must be forgiven for…"

Naruto squinted at the man before him. "Are you…saying that Gaara did this to you…for a reason?"

"There is always a reason." Yashamaru repeated, looking away.

"And that reason would be…?" Naruto asked, urgently, leaning forwards, but being held back by Kakashi's hand on his shoulder.

Yashamaru looked up from the floor and looked at Naruto dead on with those hooded eyes. Naruto thought he saw a glow in them, perhaps tears, or a melted sclera shining where the under-lids of his eyes would have been.

"Your friend looks at me with that…that _accusation_." Yashamaru whispered. He was looking at Naruto, but he thought he was talking about Kakashi. "But that is his mistake. He doesn't…_understand_….But Gaara…he did. He always knew."

"Always knew what?"

"He knew, and did nothing to stop it." The man continued, ignoring Naruto's question. "He knew and yet…he…he _let_ me. He let me."

Naruto shook his head slowly. "What did he let you do…?" he asked.

"You have to understand," Yashamaru continued, ignoring the question once again. "he had the ability to stop it. But he toyed with me. He held my heart and pulled at it until I had fallen completely from grace…"

Naruto shook his head, and resisted the urge to pull his hair. The man was talking strange, and he couldn't understand where he was getting at. It was like he was saying Gaara made him do something—something horrible, if the 'falling from grace' bit was any indication.

"He would leave his…door _open_…" Yashamaru said, squinting his eyes at Naruto, looking betrayed. "Why did he never lock it? When he _knew_? He _knew_." He blinked and looked to the ground. "I…entertained myself…with the idea that he…wanted it too…" the hands on his lap began to twitch. "But no…what does a monster know about affection…?"

Naruto felt something in him throb. Something in his stomach was breaking from its stem, bit by bit. What Yashamaru was saying…It sounded almost like he…

"I am not guilty." The man said, fiddling with his thumbs. "I did not walk the paths myself. It was facilitated by that demon. That beautiful demon."

Naruto twitched.

Oh my God.

"Just tell us what you did." He whispered sharply, but it sounded less demanding, with the way his voice shook.

Yashamaru smiled the sad smile again. "Perceptive, perceptive…" he whispered. "But so ignorant…so ignorant. I will tell you, but you have to promise…" he looked at Naruto expectantly.

Naruto gave him a troubled look. "Promise…?"

"Promise me he gets the message," he said quietly. "Since he chooses to communicate with you…and not to me. Tell him to come see me…" he finished.

Naruto sighed. The man was talking as if he and Gaara were on speaking terms or something. "I don't know if I could do that…Gaara isn't—"

"_Do not use his first name_!"

Naruto blinked and took a step back, startled by the man's outburst. He honestly did think he had it in him.

"You do not _know_ him," Yashamaru said in a low, but serious voice. "You've never been with him. You have no _right_." He shook in place for a moment, before he finally settled with a hard jerk. "I wonder why..." he whispered. "None of you have figure it out... I wonder why...he hasn't _told_. My _sins_." He said, and it was almost a cry. "Lay them on the ground and they'll cover the earth ten times over, and my demons….oh my _demons_ will have the pleasure of laying them there, for the world to see the foul essence in my _soul_. The inadvertence in my salvation that shall never _come_..." Even the man's hooded eyes could not hide the devastation in them—like a sadness that had been building up for years.

"What are you trying to say?" Naruto asked urgently. He didn't want the man to have a mental breakdown, but he wanted to know where he was going with this—

"Why didn't he take me with him?", the man continued, cutting Naruto's thoughts. "I did _everything_ for him..." to Naruto's dismay, he could see tears coming down those hooded eyes, "I cared for him, showed him more affection then his father ever had to _give_. How could I let—" he stopped to look at the sky, as if the would find the answers there, "how could I let that affection turn to _sin_?" he whispered harshly at the ceiling. "Such a deep and foul sin," he continued, and his voice came like a growl. "And _yet_," he said, continuing his monologue, "He gave his father his eternity. Not me. Never me. He left me to rot here in this cell. Never came for me. Never visited. He gave me a taste of my after life when he burned me so severely but he did not give me my eternity. _Why_?" he looked at Naruto with wide, glistening eyes, and the blonde had to take a step back.

For some reason his own eyes stung, and when he opened his mouth to speak, he found his voice thick with the salivation accumulating in his mouth. "I don't…I don't understand," he said, almost pleadingly.

"You are an _outsider_." The man spat. "You can't understand. It was always between me, and the child. And what a child," he whispered, shaking his head, "such a lovely child..."

"A lovely child?" Naruto asked incredulously, trying to fight through the emotions that seemed to be transferred to him from the man before him. "He's not a child anymore. He is a man now—and as a child he _hurt_ you—"

"You do not understand." the man exclaimed helplessly. "He will always be a child. He understands nothing. He feels nothing. He regrets nothing. And _yet_." He whispered, with wide eyes. "He understands everything. He feels everything. His heart...he took it by his own hands and _crushed it_. Then he did the same to me. There's no coming back from that. The only cure is his eternity."

"What eternity do you keep t_alking about!_**"** Naruto asked, his emotions giving in the exasperation. "What do you mean?"

"Eternity is where we go and never come back." He said, looking at the wall again. "The final moment. Infinite eternity. You cannot grasp the meaning of that word until you have reached the other side."

Naruto shook his head, and wiped a tired a hand through his hair. They weren't getting anywhere. And he didn't understand the emotion he felt before. It was as if the aching torment the man must have felt was suddenly transferred to him.

"Why did it have to be you, and not him? He has to come and see me," the man cried. "If only to torture me again—so long as his hand touches mine again, willing—unwilling. Didn't matter then, doesn't now."

Naruto said nothing in return, instead the awful feeling in his stomach was increasing. He knew something was coming—a realization—and he wasn't so sure he wanted it. It was the way he felt when he'd been about to enter Gaara's apartment with the pie months ago.

"You have not been with him as I have been." The man continued. "That _intimacy_…can only be shared with people who are one with each other. The way we were."

Naruto shook in place. Intimacy? One with each other? Did Yashamaru know who he was talking about? What he was implying?

Or maybe…it wasn't an implication. Maybe it was a confession…

Naruto clenched his fists. "Tell me…" he whispered. "what you mean by that intimacy…" he knew what question he really wanted to ask, but damn him if he had the guts to be so direct.

Yashamaru smiled the sad smile again, his already drying tears. "I can hear it in your tone of voice." He said softly. "You've already figured out the smallest piece of the puzzle."

"What _piece_?" Naruto exclaimed his voice cracking, coming forwards again. "Did you…did you and Gaara….were you…"

The man never let go of his sad smile, as he turned slowly to face Naruto. "Yes." he said simply.

And just like that, the pulsing throb in his stomach that had been hanging by a thread dropped helplessly into his pool of stomach acids, and sent a bellowing pain all over his insides.

"Oh my _God_," he moaned miserably, putting both hands to his face.

He heard Kakashi hiss and hit the wall besides him, and Tatuya, who'd he'd forgotten was even in the room, cursed incredulously.

All Naruto could think of the time range that this could have been possible. From age seven to twelve, Gaara had been...

Naruto thought of the way Kabuto told him how the boy would brush aside questions of his home life—like a plague, Naruto realized. Why would any child want to talk about something like this?

"You…" he started slowly, but he didn't know what he would say.

"As I thought." the burn victim said, looking audaciously self-righteous. "You are forgetting his _will_." He said accusingly. "You are forgetting the will inside him—which he always had. Even as a child he always had it. I only gave him _reason_."

Naruto made a move to speak, but his incredulousness and disgust didn't allow him to. He couldn't even look at the man right now. The man who he'd actually felt sorry for, moments ago—

"You're making the classic mistake." The man continued lightly. "The disassociation…the marker of vulnerably and fault inadvertently placed. You think you have figured him out, and you're associating your previous anger with sympathy towards _him_. That will be your first mistake." He looked away and seemed to glare at the ground. "Never estimate him—under or over—it is simply best to let him be and do what his will and unstable mind provides so that he can breathe in and out of that insanity caused—not by me but..." he stopped talking. "Well I suppose...the origin is a mystery, isn't it? I'd like to say his father."

"But his father didn't _rape_ him!" Naruto shouted, unable to keep it inside any longer. And when the word came out of his mouth, he felt sick all over again.

"Rape?" the man asked, still adopting the right to sound incredulous. "Hearing it aloud brings me to the absurdity of your _ignorance_." He hissed, his voice getting louder. "That primal inadequacy of a definition thrown at me as if what I did was any more scarring than WHAT HE DID TO _ME_!" he screamed, standing up for the first time.

Naruto felt a shuffle behind him. It was Tatuya coming forwards, in warning.

But Naruto didn't care about the possible danger. Instead he continued to glare at the man before him. "You think those physical burns match up to the mental damage you did to a little boy?" he shouted, coming forwards, angrier than he'd ever been. "You think that—"

"These _burns_?" Yashamaru growled, and his eyes turned dark as he touched his face. "These burns are _nothing! HE RIPPED MY HEART OUT!_" he shrieked, moving forwards to clasp Naruto by the neck, or shoulder—Naruto would never be sure where the man was aiming.

There was a quick scuffle, then, with Kakashi moving forwards to block him, and Tatuya getting to Yashamaru from behind and pulling him back.

"Do you have any idea what he meant to me!" the man continued to shriek. "He was my _everything_! And then he did _this_—" he tried to shake out of Tatuya's hold futilely.

Naruto stepped back until he was against the door, looking at the man with wide, angry eyes.

"You'll never understand," the man said helplessly, his voice dying down. "You will never know the glorious feeling of being with a boy who _knows_, oh how he knew me," he put his head down and shuddered. "How he _knew me_," he repeated, moaning, "How he _screamed_." He growled suddenly, looking at the ground with feral nostalgia. "That first time," he continued, "the only time he made a noise—but it was glorious, that scream, that raw sound, tearing at his throat as I pounded my essence, my love, my soul, my _seed_—"

Naruto felt another wave of nausea hit him, and he stumbled backwards.

"And he never locked his door." Yashamaru said, looking up at the blonde with pleading eyes. "He wanted me, _needed_ me—to fill in for the absence of affection." He whispered. "I provided it for him…So _why_," he started, his voice trembling, "_Why_ has he left me here to _rot!_" he screamed, pulling at the hold Tatuya had on him again. "Why has he _abandoned me?"_ he cried, the tears falling from his eyes once again.

Naruto had started crying long ago, and he stood by the door with both hands at his eyes, trembling.

It was too much for him. The anger he'd had for the redhead was floating away somewhere to the floor, while a sympathetic agony clenched at his heart.

This was the turning point Kabuto had been talking about. The psychological breakage in the boy's mind that pulled the murdering psycho from its subconscious. Whether or not the will to kill and cause such destruction was closer to the surface of Gaara's mind or not, Naruto still put the full blame on the Yashamaru, who he couldn't even look at right now.

And damn it, Naruto couldn't stop thinking about how _old_ Gaara had been. He'd been only seven, then eight, then nine-three years without even being a _pre-teen_.

Of course the blonde didn't know the details. Maybe the abuse started later than that. Maybe the boy was an enabler, like Yashamaru said-

The moment that thought came to his mind, Naruto wanted to stab himself. What did that _matter_? Gaara was a _child_. No child ever deserved to be...to be...

Naruto really felt it this time: the vomit building up in his stomach. He breathed deeply, trying to will the liquid down, but even then he felt his food from this morning building up in his esophagus.

"Naruto." Kakashi said, suddenly appearing before the blonde—or had he always been there? "What do you want to do?" he asked him softly.

Naruto blinked wearily, suddenly tired out of his mind. "Please," he started quietly, "Let's just go home for now." his voice sounded thick, and watery.

The gray haired man nodded to him, tapping his back lightly, before turning to face Tatuya. "We want to end this meeting short." He said. "We'd like to go now."

The pink haired woman nodded back, not showing any of the irritation he'd had for Kakashi before. Instead she looked fairly disturbed, as she held onto a now limping Yashamaru. "Just a moment." She said.

Without any effort at all, she lifted the man up by his arms and pushed him haphazardly on the bed. In any other situation, Naruto would have complained that that was no way to treat a human being, but right now he was wishing Yashamaru would fall off the bed, crack his skull, and live, so he'd have the pain to remember his sins by.

Maybe that was what Gaara had wanted, Naruto thought. He had wanted this man to suffer forever for what he did to him.

But then, what had Yashamaru said about not getting his eternity? What did that mean?

He suddenly remembered what Kabuto told him Gaara said after he'd seen his mother die. _She's finally an eternity_…

Naruto let his eyes widen. Did that mean death? he asked himself. Was Yashamaru angry that Gaara had not ended this misery and let him go to rest for an eternity in death?

The blonde shook his head. It was all too confusing. And his heart wasn't into solving a mystery right now. The information he'd just learned…

How was he ever going to recover?

Before he knew it, Kakashi was taking him by the shoulders and taking him outside of the room. There was a small group of nurses gathered there, looking into the room with wide and concerned eyes. He wondered if they heard the conversation. Tatuya had left the door open, after all.

"Don't forget your promise," Yashamaru called out, sitting up from the bed. "When he lets you see him, tell him that I miss him. That I need him—that I want him to visit me—"

"You shut your _damned mouth_," said Tatuya, but Naruto would have said something much worse if he'd been the first to speak. The pink haired woman, shut the door of the room harshly, and locked the door with the same gusto. When she turned to face Naruto and Kakashi it was with sympathetic eyes. "We're moving him to the criminal ward." She said to them. "And we're going to make sure that everyone knows what he did to that boy." She added.

Naruto was too tired to nod, but he could tell Kakashi already took care of that. "Thanks," he said.

"Right. Let's get you back."

Then Naruto had to suffer through a fifteen minute walk as disturbing thoughts of a screaming child being forced upon by his uncle ran around in his head.

* * *

"I've never heard anything so horrible," Iruka whispered, putting a hand to his mouth.

Kakashi had just finished explaining to him what had happened at the asylum, and he shook his head along with his partner. "I know. It puts a whole new perspective on things. But we can't," he said, looking at Naruto, "take this incident and find a way to excuse Gaara for his actions." He said. "Gaara might have been badly influenced, and the way he is probably comes from the way he was…abused…But what's done is done. We have to capture him, and put him behind bars."

Naruto nodded lamely. He understood that. It just…broke his heart. He kept thinking how Gaara's life could have been different if circumstances hadn't…

Naruto shook his head.

"I feel your pain, Naruto." Kakashi said. "But we have to do what we have to do. Now why don't you go back home and rest for a while? Or would you rather stay here…"

"No, no." the blonde said, standing up from the couch. "I'll go home. And maybe busy myself with something; if I sleep I'll have nightmares…" he finished quietly.

"And what will you busy yourself with?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow. "There's nothing for you at home. Maybe it'll be better if you stayed here and watched television instead…"

Naruto shook his head. "I really don't want to impose. Maybe I could try to find out what the note I got in the mail meant, or something."

"What note in the mail?" Iruka asked, perking his ears.

Naruto paused, remembering he'd pocketed the note before they'd gone out. He pulled it out and gave it to the scarred man. "This note." He said. "It came in a huge box this morning. No return address. I don't know what it says."

Iruka took the card and narrowed his eyes at it. "It's in Latin." He said quietly, peering at it.

Naruto raised both eyebrows. "Do you know what it says?" he asked, coming to stand next to the man.

Iruka pointed at the second word. "_Donum_ means gift." He said quietly. "And this word…" he said pointing to the first word, "looks like an article…maybe 'the'…or 'a'…hmm…" he pulled the card closer, as if the words would make more sense up close. "A gift." He said finally. "That's what it means."

Naruto tilted his head. "A gift? What gift?" he looked to Kakashi, but the man only shook his head.

"Maybe it's a joke or something?" the man offered.

Naruto thought quietly to himself. Had he really looked through the box thoroughly? Now that he thought about it, he hadn't looked _under_ the bubble wrap, had he?

"I think," Naruto started softly, "I should go home now." He said carefully. "You're right. I need the sleep."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him. "You're sure you don't want to stay?"

Iruka gave the blonde his card and nodded, "Yes, Naruto, are you sure? You're more than welcome, you know that."

Naruto nodded gratefully. "Thanks, but I should really go. I'll talk to you both tomorrow."

Iruka gave him a sad expression and Kakashi simply nodded. "Alright then. Take care."

* * *

The box had had another box inside of it.

Naruto looked at it with wary eyes, fingering the sides of it cautiously.

He'd come down from Iruka's apartment thinking all the while, of how he left the bigger box on the desk without even looking into it. How could he have done that? Been so un-thorough.

When he pulled out the bubble wrap he had only been half surprised to find another box in it, sitting atop of another pile of bubble wrap. Naruto had made sure to look under it, so he didn't miss anything else, but there was nothing there.

And now the blonde sat on the ground, facing a tiny, plain, brown box. It was less than a foot in length and width.

Naruto took a deep breath as he tore the top part of it open, careful not to damage the material completely. There was always a chance that this was a mistake or a joke, that he would find something from his grandmother, or perhaps even Kiba, but the way his heart was pounding in his chest told him otherwise.

So did the length of the silver pistol that stared back at him as he overturned the last flap of the box.

A gun.

Naruto shook in place.

Who would send this to him?

Then a piece of paper, folded once, caught his eye.

He took it with trembling hands, and unfolded it to read what was inside.

_She will come as an imposter, but you will know her. Kill her before she kills you, as she has chosen her allegiance. Only then will the divinity that shapes our ends, roughed hued as it is, allow us to meet. Only favor me with your tongue, and I will not speak against the sun. _

_Gaara._

* * *

**Author's Note**

**(6/14/2012)**

******IM SO SORRY GUYS BUT I CAN'T DO IT. It's taking forever to write the next chapter, and I know I promised it on the weekend, but I have to postpone the update to MONDAY JULY 16TH. I know what's going to happen and how, it's just taking a damn long time to type. I'm also splitting chapter twelve into two parts, so you'll get two chapters on Monday. Really sorry. **

Also, I'm interested in HIRING A BETA for this story, so if anyone's interested? Personally, I'd like someone who has followed the the story so they can not only help me with my bad grammar and spell checking skills, but also so they can give me any ideas or tips on how to make the story clearer for my readers, or even some plot ideas! So yeah.

Again, really sorry, really sorry.

**CHAPTER TWELVE:**

**Okay, so I've been getting a lot of PM's about this, and I'm really really sorry, but I accidentally clicked "add new story" instead of "replace chapter", and I can't believe the site sent the email even after I'd deleted the false chapter immediately. Sigh, I'm really sorry about this guys. The update comes on Monday.**

13, 200 words!

Yes, I know this was a short chapter, but—

Holy moly, he signed his name! I wonder who this female imposter he talks about in that note is...

Gah, I can't wait! Next chapter is the **The Chapter you've all been anticipating**! The latest it will be posted in Next Sunday, July 14th, but I'm betting it's coming way earlier than that.

A word of warning though, next chapter will be the longest yet, possibly **20,000** words, and the content might be on the **gruesome, and perhaps erotic side**. When I said this story was rated M for later chapters, this next chapter is what I'm talking about. Soo0,

Stay tuned.

Also, I've been getting a lot of reviews asking if this is **Yaoi** or not- **it is!** It always has been, :). My pacing was just incredibly slow, and for that I apologize.

Thanks for reading,

Tschüss


	12. Secrets Upon Secrets Upon Secrets

**Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Twelve: We Meet At Last Part Two: _Secrets upon Secrets upon Secrets_

**Warnings**_: _Long conversations, Defiant Naruto

* * *

It wasn't the fact that it was in his room, staring at him as he sat on the ground. It wasn't even the fact that it was a _gun_.

It was the fact that he knew whose hands touched the gun, the box, and the box inside the box. He knew who'd handled the material, written the letter, and send it out in the mail.

_Why_?

Of course, he acknowledged the possibility that it wasn't Gaara. That maybe it was the man's lackey doing his dirty work.

But the mere _possibility_ of those hands having touched the things in front of him was enough for the blonde to move back in fear, unwilling to put even a finger on anything.

And the _note_.

Naruto shivered.

He'd spent the last few minutes darting his eyes from left to right, trying to shake off the feeling of ghostly hands licking the skin on the back of his neck, because the words on it made him feel like some_thing_, not even someone, was watching his every move from every which direction—

Naruto shook again, and this time the shiver attacked the glands under his skin and caused goose bumps to appear on his flesh.

And Naruto sat there, trembling—the name on the bottom of the letter echoing in his head over and over and over and over—

_Gaara_.

Naruto hunched over, and held himself.

He'd never felt anything like this before. This _fear_. It coursed through him like hot, bitter coffee splashing into his insides.

But there was something else.

The truth that he learned today—of what Gaara's bastard of an uncle did to him—

And then it went away, and never had a thought so clear wrung in Naruto's head:

It wasn't what had _made_ Gaara this way; it wasn't his influences, or his past—

It was the person he was _now_. The danger he posed, the murders he'd soon commit—

The fear, he was putting in Naruto's heart.

It was a sad truth, the blonde thought, shaking his head. Neji had been right when he said not to try and understand why a criminal was committing a crime. It was pointless, because all it did was add guilt to inevitability. Gaara had to be caught, and taken down.

And this letter…

Naruto paused. This letter was the way to do it, wasn't it? He had to analyze it, understand it, and maybe it would lead to Gaara getting caught?

It took a lot from him, but he moved forwards again, and picked up the letter he'd haphazardly dropped on the floor. His fingers still trembled as he took it and brought it near to read it again.

_Sh-she wil c-come—_

Naruto cursed himself. Damn it, he was even stuttering in his thoughts. He ground his teeth together and growled in frustration. This was ridiculous. He shouldn't be this afraid. He put himself in danger when he decided he would get involved in this mess in the first place. Feeling this way would make him back out, and that was unacceptable when he had friends on the line, when innocent lives were in danger.

Maybe…

Naruto swallowed. Should he contact the police?

He entertained the thought for a long while, trying to figure out what sort of actions the police would take.

Would they do something about it? Or would they—

Naruto frowned. Or would they take him as a suspect himself, because Gaara was speaking to him in the first place?

The blonde didn't know why but that seemed like a very possible outcome, considering the very direct way the authorities decided to approach the Gaara look-alike, deciding to attack first, then ask questions.

That made Naruto decide. He wasn't going to the police—not just yet. They were…unreliable, and volatile, and he wasn't sure they would approach the situation with the cautiousness needed to catch the man.

Not that he himself knew the way to catch Gaara. He just had a hunch that involving the police would be counter-productive. He would tell Kakashi of course, because it was never good to go into something dangerous alone, and he trusted the gray haired ex-policeman to think rationally in a situation like this.

But that still left him with what he would do by himself. He couldn't keep sitting here, shaking like a helpless leaf on a windy day. It was unacceptable. He had to be stronger than this.

He shook his head viciously, and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, he promised himself, he would stop shaking and pick out the clues he knew were in the letter.

One….two…._three_.

Naruto opened his eyes.

And he breathed.

His hands were steady, his breaths came in light puffs. His heart still beat like he'd been running for hours, but one couldn't have everything.

And it was better. He could see clearly again. With that clear state of mind he began to read the note again.

_She will come as an imposter_.

Naruto breathed out. That was easy enough. Now to understand it.

An imposter. _She_.

Someone he knew? Naruto thought carefully. Someone he knew would be in disguise…but he would recognize her anyway? Was that what the note was saying?

Naruto narrowed his eyes. The first part seemed simple enough, he supposed. He moved on to the next part.

_Kill her before she kills you._

The blonde's eyes flickered towards the gun still in the box. Was that what the gun was for? To kill the woman he apparently knew?

…_for she has chosen her allegiance._

Like a side? Naruto shook his head. He was able to understand the first part, he supposed. Someone he knew would be in disguise, but he would still recognize her, and then he was supposed to kill her because she would kill him otherwise? And because she'd chosen a side?

What side?

And who could he possibly know would try to kill him in the first place?

He tried to think of all the women he'd known all his life.

Of course Sakura was the first name, but only because he cared about her so deeply. The idea that Sakura would try to kill him broke his heart. Sakura would never do that.

The other woman was his grandmother, and after that the list grew incredibly thin. Naruto hadn't been friends with many women in the past. He'd had girlfriends, towards the end of high school, when he'd resigned himself to the fact that Sasuke actually loved Sakura back, leaving the blonde absolutely no chance with the woman.

And he'd had a fling with that one girl who'd worked at the Hotel for while…

Naruto shook his head. There really wasn't anyone he could pin for a murderer, really. Maybe Gaara was…

Maybe he was just full of shit.

Naruto wrinkled his nose and glared at the note before. Why was he paying so much attention to the detail of the letter anyway? It was as if he thought this was a premonition of some sorts. He was trusting the contents of the letter because…

_He knows what was, what is, and what will be._

Naruto didn't allow the shiver to make its run across his spine. Instead he straightened himself and shook his head. It was wrong to deny the importance of the letter, but he wasn't going to treat it like a religion that would show him the truth. He had to keep as objective a view as possible.

But was that possible?

The letter—the gun—was addressed to _him_. How could he be objective about this now? When he was clearly involved. He thought about what Kakashi had said about Naruto quite possibly being the center of all of this—Gaara's driving factor—but Naruto threw that idea out the window. That was impossible. The biggest role he could play in all of this was a pawn, a toy that would help Gaara get what he want, whatever that was.

That surged a bit of longing at the pit of Naruto's stomach, a feeling he was all familiar with back in school, when he used to stand in Sasuke's shadow. The obnoxious raven-haired teenager had always been the front runner for very important task, like leading in class government, and had always been praised an rewarded for his academic feats, he'd won every school fight he'd been in, and never got in trouble, while Naruto lost all his and gotten in more trouble than the person who started it.

Naruto wouldn't be surprised now if Sasuke _was_ somehow at the root of all of this. Maybe Gaara had seen him a formidable foe or something, and sought to destroy everyone who meant anything to him.

That wouldn't explain Ino, of course, but Naruto thought he was on to something. He puffed out a small sigh, before he went back to the note.

_Only then will the divinity that shapes out ends allow us to meet._

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _Only then_. As in, this thing about the imposter and the killing, _had_ to happen first. The blonde paused, thinking about that. But all he got was more questions. He was missing so much of the puzzle. Who was the woman? What divinity? And _meeting_?

Did Gaara really mean that literally? Like he wanted to meet Naruto? Naruto bit the inside of his lips. That didn't…make any sense. What did he have to do with _anything_?

And then the line after that.

_Only favor me your tongue, and I shall not speak against the sun._

That line sent shivers down his spine. He didn't know but it sounded strangely…intimate.

_Favor me with you tongue._

It sounded like the man wanted to chop him up and put is tongue on a platter.

And the part about not speaking against the sun? Naruto wouldn't even try to interpret that. It just didn't make any sense to him.

The blonde remembered the way Kabuto tried to explain how weird Gaara spoke, making it hard to understand him most of the time. _Riddlesque_, he'd said. Naruto wondered if this was the riddle type language the psychiatrist had been talking about. Was Gaara trying to tell him something, or was he just crazy and talking strange?

Naruto recognized the latter idea as a desperate reach for an explanation, and put that thought away. He himself said Gaara was smart and knew what he was doing. So then, why send this letter to Naruto? What did the letter mean?

What did Gaara expect him to _do_?

_Only then can we meet._

Another shiver. But it wasn't from fear. It was…something else. Like an excitement. Naruto knew something was coming. And he was a part of it. That was what fueled his determination, made him want to keep going.

* * *

"Naruto do you have any idea what this means? The implications of this?" Kakashi was pacing back and forth, restless in a way that Naruto had never seen before. Iruka sat on the couch, and shifted worried eyes from his partner to the blonde.

"You mean the letter?" Naruto asked. "That's what I came to ask you guys about."

"Not just the letter." Kakashi said, pausing in his pacing to turn to him. "It's the facts behind the letter. The fact that Kaze mailed this to _you_, is contacting _you_—the fact that he signed his own _name_—" he paused to run a hand through his hair. "I'd been thinking about it earlier, after you'd left," he continued, calmer than he was a moment ago, "about how you seemed so connected with everything. When I spoke of it at first, I'd only been speculating but now…" he trailed off and looked at Naruto with meaningful eyes.

Naruto stared back cautiously. He'd never seen the man so riled up. It would have looked normal on any other person, but the ex-policeman was always so calm…

"And that letter," Kakashi continued, lowly. "The contents are…"

"Odd and straightforward at the same time." Iruka finished for him. He'd been the one to read it aloud, and he was holding it at the moment. "The first part states clearly that you're going to have to kill someone before they kill you, and that it'll be someone you know, as you correctly interpreted earlier. What I don't understand is how he expects you to that, and where. There's no indication of the range of time he expects this to happen…"

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. He wondered about that, but not in the context of time. Now that he thought about it, how was he going to even approach a situation like this, if he had no idea where to look or when to expect it?

"Despite all that, we know he wants you to kill someone. That's out of the question, of course, and I think, if Gaara knows you as well as everyone says he does, he knows you're incapable of that, Naruto."

The blonde swallowed around the confession in his mouth. It was true, he didn't feel like he was capable of killing anyone, but he hadn't told Iruka and Kakashi Gaara's means of facilitating that side to him. He hadn't told them about the gun.

"Yeah…" he said lamely. "But you never know...maybe in a situation where I'm being cornered or about to die I'll…I don't know…" he ended quietly. He didn't really believe what he was saying. He didn't have a killing bone in his body.

_All humans are capable. It's how close to the surface that side of us is, that differs_, Kabuto's voice said in his head. Naruto shook his head.

"You don't really think you would kill anyone, would you, Naruto?" Iruka asked softly.

The blonde shook his head, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "No…" he said carefully, and he meant it. "I don't think I am at all…but I was thinking about the rest of the note. It says _only_ _then_, can we meet. Like this has to happen before I can see him."

"That doesn't mean you should up and kill someone Naruto." Kakashi said, looking at Naruto carefully, as if checking if the blonde knew what he was saying.

"Yes, I know that." Naruto said. "I just feel like it's an important part—that _only then_ part. I don't know why but I feel like something has to happen, and I have to be a part of it. Maybe there's going to be someone I recognize or whatever, but this event has to happen for me to meet Gaara." He finished.

"You almost sound like you want to see him." Iruka stated, lightly.

Naruto blinked, and hesitated before he spoke. "I just want to catch him." he said quietly. "And I feel like we're close. Really close."

Kakashi looked at him through calculating eyes, before he went to face his partner. "And the rest of the letter?" he asked. "It doesn't seem so straightforward anymore."

Iruka nodded, and pointed to the last line. "Only favor me with you tongue, can mean so many things, but there are two explanations that come to mind, both of which are requests."

"Requests?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

Iruka nodded. "Yes. I thought that important since we're dealing with a cold-murderer, but he still extended the courtesy of a request." Iruka laughed at the bemused look at Naruto's face. "I mean he _asked_." He explained. "He's asking you, instead of just odering, which is what he does in the beginning of he note…" he trailed off, looking at the note again.

"So what are the two explanations?" Naruto asked. "Does he want to serve my tongue on a platter or something?"

Iruka offered a small smile at that, obviously not welcoming the image it brought him. "Well the first explanation is very simple. When people refer to tongue, it's often related to language, or on a broader scale, voice. Favor me you tongue or please speak. Or talk." Iruka shrugged after that. "It's an odd request."

"And the other explanation."

"Well, it's a mildly lewd one, and very unlikely. Kaze could mean a kiss."

Naruto blinked at that. "What?"

Iruka nodded slowly. "I'm surprised you didn't think of that right away." He said looking at the blonde. "If I saw the word tongue, the first thing that would come to mind was an opened mouth kis—" he stopped then, when he saw the way Naruto was looking very near horrified next to him, and Kakashi was giving him a deep, and slow look that wasn't appropriate when they had company.

Iruka cleared his throat loudly. "Uh, right." He said loudly. "So those are my two explanations. The thing is however, neither of them quite fit the theories I have on the last line." He continued, brilliantly ignoring the past awkwardness he caused.

"Speak against the sun," the scarred man continued. "is actually a common saying, in Latin. I forget the origins, but it simply meant speaking against an obvious a fact or an object of greater authority. Commonly God." He narrowed his eyes then, as if he was missing something. "But it doesn't really make sense in that case…" he murmured. "There are four translations, 'only speak to me and I shall not speak against an obvious fact', 'only kiss me and I shall not speak against higher authority', 'only speak to me and I shall not speak against higher authority', and 'only kiss me and I shall not speak against an obvious fact'."

"None of those made much sense…" Naruto said, wearily wiping a hand through his hair. "What the hell is trying to ask me?"

Iruka shrugged. "There are other theories I have, but they don't make much sense either…"

"I feel like it will all become clear later on." Kakashi said suddenly. "We basically have the first part down. If we take this as a premonition sort of thing, which we're sort of inclined to do, then we should wait."

"Wait?"

"Yes. Wait. Continue on with things. Not try to egg on any events. Simply be."

Naruto looked down, thoughtful. He'd thought Kakashi would have made some sort of grand plan, finding a way to trap Gaara in his own scheme. "Do nothing…?" he asked softly.

Kakashi nodded, leaning against his wall with his arms crossed. "It's the best thing we can do for now. And if you think about it, what is it that we _can_ do? Kaze's only telling us about events that he says will happen. When the time comes, it will be our choice to follow through. If the note said that he was going to kill someone if we didn't do a specific task, then it'll be a different issue, and we'd be trying to somehow intercept those events. But here, he just expects you to do something—which I know you have no tool or intention of doing, isn't that right, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded stiffly. "Yeah…" He didn't have the intention, no. But he did have the tools. Tool. It was eating him inside, the need to tell Kakashi about it. But there was something nagging in him, telling him to keep it a secret.

"Then I suppose we should contact the police about this then?" Iruka asked cautiously.

"That's probably—"

"_No_." Naruto said, interrupting Kakashi. "We can't tell the police. Not yet."

Kakashi gave him a slow look. "And why not?" he asked, carefully.

"Because I don't trust them to screw everything up." Naruto said plainly. "Because I know they're going to take this to a level they shouldn't, or not do enough, and keep all the information they find out to themselves."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "You've certainty thought this through."

"I have." The blonde replied, not backing down. "At first it seemed like the plausible thing to do—but what have the police really done for us except ignite an explosion in an apartment of your building—"

"You can't pin that on the police and you know that, Naruto." Kakashi said, giving him a hard stare. "It was Kaze, or Akasuna, I still don't understand that part of it—"

"But you should have _seen_ the way they just charged in." Naruto stressed. "I said one little suspicion and they were suddenly sending black vans full of armed men after this one guy—" he stopped himself to give Kakashi a pleading look. "Look, Kakashi you probably know the police better than I do, so you must know what I'm talking about. Can we really trust them?"

The gray haired visibly hesitated, having an obvious dilemma in his head. Finally he sighed and shook his head. "Naruto we have to tell the police." He said finally. "Going out on our own just isn't—"

"_Kakashi_—"

"No, listen to me." the man said raising a hand. "I know where you're coming from, and you're right I know a little bit about how unreliable the police can be, but trust me it's better that they know—"

"How can you say that?" Naruto asked, looking betrayed. "God knows what they'll do to me now that they I'm somehow involved—"

"That's—"

"Do you know what they did to me when they thought I had something to do with Ino's death?" he asked, interrupting the ex-policeman. "They grabbed me in the middle of the street like I was some kind of criminal, and then they interrogated me the same way. And when they found out I had nothing to do with it, which countless evidence showed even before they showed up, they gave me some apologetic story about how they were acting out a whim. They did the same thing with Sasori. What if he'd been an innocent man, and was bombarded in his apartment with fifty guys aiming a gun at him, huh!" he asked, and his voice was an inconsiderately loud now, "what if he'd been innocent and freaked out and gotten shot because of it?" he asked, glaring at Kakashi.

"Naruto, I said I understood the way the police work could be—"

"Then why are you going to contact them?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Kakashi sighed wearily and shook his head. "Because we can't do this alone." He said. "We need the police to have our back at all times."

"They won't be at our backs. They'll be in front of us, trying to dictate everything and get a hold on a situation they know absolutely nothing about—"

"And do _we_ know anything about it?" Kakashi asked the blonde, harshly. "Do we have any idea what we're doing?"

"We know what to expect," Naruto said angrily back, and standing up. "We have the letter—"

"And say everything in that letter comes true?" Kakashi asked, moving forwards so he and the blonde were in front of each other. "Say you actually do end up meeting Gaara? What _then_? Are you going to kill him yourself? You're going to take down the man who escaped an inescapable prison, who murdered two people when he was a mere child, and seventy-five more when he was just a teenager? " he said, getting in Naruto's face. "You think you can take that alone?"

The words the blonde wanted to say got stuck in his throat, and the glare he was aiming at the older man faltered.

"You _can't_, Naruto." Kakashi said, gravely. "We need all the help we can get. It will take more than one person." He stepped back again, and looked at the blonde with calculating eyes, seeing if he understood.

Naruto looked down and to the side, but was faced with the troubled face of Iruka who sat on the couch. Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. "I…" he understood. But he didn't like it. The police weren't…Naruto shook his head again. He just couldn't shake the feeling that they would somehow ruin everything.

"We could not tell them everything." Kakashi said suddenly, taking Naruto away from his thoughts. "We could omit the part about the letter being mailed specifically to you, if that's what you want. But Naruto, don't think about the police as a restricting force, but a shield. If they know that Kaze is somehow after you, then they will protect you. They'll watch your every move and if anything seems out of hand, then they'll be immediately at your side to help."

"Or they'll lock me in some cell because they're too lazy to follow me around." Naruto replied bitterly. But there was no real ground to his words. He didn't have good enough reason not to involve the police, he realized grimly. Only the feeling in his gut.

"You know that's too unreasonable," Kakashi murmured, "even for them."

Naruto let his eyes dim as he collapsed back on the couch next to Iruka. "I understand that I need help." He said. "I just…I don't know. Maybe I was hoping that I wouldn't need any help. That I'd be able to do this myself. Be important somehow…" he mumbled lastly.

Kakashi's eyes softened and he put lazy hands on his hips. "Now is not the time for power trips, Naruto. You obviously mean more to what's happening then what we'd previously thought. But this isn't only about you, it's about Gaara, finding him, and stopping him before he does damage."

"And you think the police are going to help us?" Naruto whispered, looking up at the ex-policeman with tired eyes.

"They'll be more of an advantage than a disadvantage at this point." Kakashi replied non-committedly.

"Huh." Naruto scoffed lightly, looking away. "Weighing out the odds…"

"It's the best we can do for now."

"I suppose. It's an inevitable thing, after all." Naruto replied, folding his hands, and keeping his head down. "You heard what Shikamaru said that time at the lab. He knows how to get what he wants. Whether or not we go to the police he'll still have the upper hand—"

"Yes, but with the police at least we'll have some kind of back-up." Kakashi said swiping an exasperated hand through the air. "We have to do this, Naruto." The man said gravely, forcing the blonde to look up again.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "It's not like I can stop you." He whispered, defiantly.

"And you'd like to?" the gray haired man asked, incredulous.

Naruto sighed and leaned back in the couch. "I just think it's a bad idea."

"We'll take out chances." Kakashi said back, adamant.

There was a silence between the two, with Kakashi looking hard at the blonde, and Naruto being unable to meet his eyes.

"When are we going to do this…?" Iruka asked, delicately disturbing the tension.

Kakashi seemed to blink out of a trance, and he sighed for a moment, before looking up at the clock on the cable box to the left of him. "It's almost 6:30…My father will still be at the station if we leave within the hour." He said. "Right now I want to make sure we know what we're going to say when we get there.

"Naruto," he started, nodding to the blonde. "If we don't include that you're involved in this, then what do we say?"

Naruto said nothing for a while, staring ahead with narrowed eyes. When he spoke his eyes had softened, and he looked more tired than angry. "You can tell them that I'm involved." He sighed out. "Maybe that protection you're talking about will come in handy later." He didn't really believe it, of course. But it was probably best to cooperate for now.

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked tentatively.

"Yeah." Naruto answered with a shrug. "You know more about these kinds of situations than I do."

Kakashi looked at the blonde cautiously. "Alright then…if we have nothing to prepare then you and I should leave."

"Kakashi, I'm coming too." Iruka said almost angrily, noticing the way his partner left him out.

Kakashi sighed and gave Iruka a pleading look. "Please Iruka, stay here. I promise to tell you everything when I get back. Right now I don't want to risk involving you in anything."

"Three months ago your apartment building was bombed, Kakashi. What makes you think I'm any safer here?"

Kakashi hesitated, frowning. "I don't—"

"Just let me come, Kakashi," Iruka said, sighing. "If anything happens on this trip, at least I'm with you. You'll never forgive yourself if I'm hurt and you aren't there with me." he moved passed his partner then, to get a jacket from the closet beside the front door.

Kakashi blinked dumbly as Iruka passed him. He opened his mouth to protest, but swallowed whatever he was going to say a moment later. Instead he turned to Naruto, who was looking at them with careful eyes from the couch. "Well?" he said. "Let's get going."

* * *

"You can't be serious."

Naruto sighed and crossed his arms. They were in what he would call an office room in the police station. There were many desks, mostly empty now that it was already eight at night, but a few of them were occupied up front with people typing idly.

Naruto sat in back at one of the desk chairs, along with Iruka, while Kakashi stood.

Three officers, Chouji, Neji, and someone he hadn't met before named Obito who had exchanged a grim handshake with Kakashi and had not stopped glaring at Iruka since he'd entered the building, stood at random paces away from each other, all with their arms crossed, standing and staring back at the three of them.

"We're dead serious." Kakashi said, exasperated. "When do you think my father will be back, again?"

Masashi had been out of the building along with Shikamaru since the morning, Chouji had informed them earlier. There was an odd suicide-homicide at a Hospital in Mushroom City, and Shikamaru was called after the initial police station surrounding the area of the crime finished their job, to do his detective work. He'd asked Masashi to come along.

"Like we said before," said Chouji raising two hands sympathetically. "We have no idea. But we figure it's sooner rather than later. They've been there that long, I think, because of how long it takes to reach the end of Mushroom.."

"Forget that for now," Neji said impatiently. "Now explain to me again what's going on. Sabako himself sent you a letter?" he eyed Naruto with condescending raised eyebrow. "Specifically? Did it have your name on it?"

"Not the letter, but the box it was sent to me in." Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "I told you this before. Why do I have to say it again?"

"Because I can't believe someone so insignificant could play any kind of role in this." Neji said, loudly, and truthfully. "How can any of us be sure this isn't some stunt to get us to tell you what we know?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Last time you stuck your nose where it didn't belong, trying to get in on the autopsy report when you had absolutely no business being there. Now you're trying to involve yourself again in the investigation so you can get information—"

"That's complete _bullshit_." Naruto half-shouted, squeezing the armrests of his chair. "I'm doing no such thing. And how the hell can you blame me for coming to the police in the first place. If you see something _say_, something. I see that shit everywhere and now—"

"Calm down, Naruto." Chouji pleaded, putting a finger to his lips, and nodding at the people who were working in the room with them.

Naruto bared his teeth for a moment, before began whispering harshly, "We're not lying. We showed you the proof." He tilted his head towards the letter in Kakashi's hand. "What more do you want from us?"

Neji said nothing glaring at the blonde.

"I believe what your saying Naruto." Chouji piped up. "I think we're all just pretty riled up right now."

"And why is that, exactly?" asked Kakashi, narrowing his eyes. "All of you seem on edge."

Chouji visibly hesitated before he spoke. "The three of us, including Masashi and Shikamaru went to see Kurenai two days ago."

"Shut your damned mouth, Akamichi," Neji hissed.

"_What_?" Naruto asked sitting up. "Why? And why wasn't I—"

"She called us first, saying she had something to show us. Masashi convinced her not to call you or his son." He bowed in a small apology.

Meanwhile Naruto felt a bit of anger boiling in him. He knew it, he knew the police would hide things from him—"Well what did she say? What were the results?"

Chouji suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Well…it was kind of disturbing…"

"Spit it out," Naruto commanded, hating the suspense.

"She finished the research on the Akasuna person." said a voice Naruto didn't recognize. Looking to the left he saw that the man who'd introduced himself as Obito was speaking. He was leaning against the wall, a deep furrow on his brow. He at last turned from glaring at Iruka (a glare which the man pointedly ignored) and faced Naruto. "She went digging hard. Found out everything about his biology, and then everything about his life. Turns out—"

"Are you seriously telling them this?" Neji asked, turning to face the dark haired man. Naruto didn't know why but the man reminded him strangely of Sasuke.

"Well everyone's going to know anyway." He said with a shrug that shed some years off of his face. Naruto didn't think the man was younger than thirty. "She said that the details he found on Akasuna on a biological level were on a near perfect match with the guy who was blown to bits at building 1313." He continued.

"Near perfect?"

"The unmatched aspects had to do with the alterations the guy'd made on his body in the first place." He clarified. "And turns out he did a lot. The only things not tempered with were his eyes and his heart. There were even weird things going on with his blood, but none of that's important.

Kurenai told us she was ninety percent sure that it was Sasori on the table, but she said the only way to make it one hundred percent was for us to dig up his grave and see for ourselves…"

"That's when things got creepy." Chouji finished, and said nothing after that. Even Obito stayed quiet, looking with a quirked mouth at the floor.

"Can you just—_please_, guys?" Naruto yelled, "Enough with the suspense, just tell us what you found."

"We found a body." Neji said reluctantly. "But it wasn't real. It _looked_ real—but it wasn't, because it's impossible to be dead for years and not rot even a little bit."

Naruto leaned forwards in his chair. "What? The casket had a body? An did it look like Sasori?"

Neji nodded. "We'd found pictures on the graduation site, and they were exact replicas of the body we found in that grave. We sent it to Kurenai and she started talking this voodoo nonsense about neo-embalmination and such—"

"Too excited for her own good," Obito mumbled. "She said that Sasori had mastered the art of neo-embalming, and had faked his death years ago, and somehow reappeared here, as some kind of terrorist."

"Wait, so you still don't have a reason why he did those things?" asked Kakashi.

Obito answered back, but Naruto couldn't listen. So what of the reason? He was still stuck on what Sasori did. He faked his death? What did that mean? Did it mean he escaped Gaara some how? But if he so called escaped the man, then why was he working for Gaara in the first place?

Naruto shook his head.

Wait.

He didn't know of Sasori was working for Gaara, not really. He only had his hunches. There was still the possibility that Sasori was working on his own all along, and was a simple replicator like they'd predicted before, but—

"What the hell is going on?" all six men turned to see Masashi and Shikamaru walking in, along with a few other officers.

"Dad," Kakashi began, widening his eyes.

When Masashi saw his son, Iruka, and Naruto in the large office room, his eyes slimmed to a glare and he stalked up to them angrily. "Tell me," he started gravely, reaching Naruto's spot at the chair and looming over him. "what the hell you were _thinking_." He growled the last part until it was almost a low shout, and turned to face his son with a quick angry turn, "And _you_," he hissed. "You _helped_ him."

"What are you talking about, dad…" the ex-policeman started slowly.

"You know damn well!" Masashi shouted, banging his good fist onto the table Naruto was sitting in. The other was in a very bulky cast-sling.

The blonde jumped a bit when the man banged his fist, and opted to stand up from his seat.

"You and this brat," The chief continued, "went on a little trip to the Looney bin didn't you? Hoping to get information from that murdering bastard's crazy uncle—trying to somehow get the upper hand against the police—"

"It wasn't about getting the upper hand," Kakashi started, already exasperated with his father. "It was about—"

"It doesn't matter what it was about!" the chief screamed, and his voice was shrill.

Shikamaru put a hand on his shoulder, and Masashi ripped in away. The other policemen who'd followed him in shifted nervously behind.

"You two ruined everything!" he shouted again. "A woman went to the Downtown Mushroom police and told them everything you bastards took out of the kid's uncle." He spat. "They're going to find out everything. They're going to know that this branch has kept our leads on Sabako, and there's going to be an entire damned news story on what happened to the murderer when he was—"

"Wait." Kakashi said, interrupting, "What the hell do you mean the branch is going to find out? What leads? Why are you making it sound like they didn't know already?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

His father hesitated, then, stayed silent for long moments.

"That's because they don't know it already." Shikamaru said, finally. "We kept it from them."

When Naruto looked at Kakashi's face, he saw many emotions pass through it, but none so much as the disbelief and anger that transferred from his features to his growl of "_What_."

Shikamaru crossed his arms. "We didn't tell the other branches." He repeated. "We've been working on this alone. Ever since Sasuke went missing."

"Ever since—" Kakashi own anger interrupted him, and he threw his head to the side with his hand on his mouth. "Since Sasuke went _missing_?" he hissed. "That was almost a year ago! You mean to tell me you've been trying to find the most un-findable man in all of Northern-sect by _yourselves_—!"

"We had good reason." Masashi said, speaking up. "We were more ahead in clues than any of the others. We had that man by our fingertips, and then Sasuke had to ruin everything for us."

"What?" Naruto said, stepping forwards. "Sasuke? What do you mean he ruined everything? What the hell have you guys—"

"You've been yapping at us to keep out mouth shut all this time," Neji interrupted in a low voice, "and here you are spitting everything out." He glared at the chief.

Masashi glared back. "That's because the game is over;" he hissed back. "these two sons of bitches have ruined everything."

"How the hell have we ruined anything?" Naruto shouted. "What are you talking about?"

"What he means to say," Shikamaru started, "since we seem to be on the track of confessing already, is that our branch has been on Kaze's trail for a while now. We've been tracking him ever since he escaped the prison."

"Well so has every other police branch in Northern-sect." said Kakashi, stating the obvious.

"Yes…for a while." Shikamaru said slowly. "But you know how these things work, don't you Kakashi? You spend a few months looking for a guy, and when no sign shows up, you lay off offensive and take a defensive approach instead—waiting for spottings of the killer instead of trying to find it. That's what all the others did. We didn't."

"And you got a lead, is that what you're saying?" Kakashi asked. "You got a lead and then decided not to tell the others?"

"Exactly." Shikamaru replied with a small nod. "You know how this branch was doing, Kakashi. We've botched more field assignments then we can count, and how many missing persons reported to us are still missing? And—"

"And _what_?" Kakashi cried out, disbelievingly. "You find Gaara, take the credit, then get some sort of award, and positive recognition for the _department_? Do you have any idea what have you've done? You're putting innocent lives in danger—"

"We have police in every constituency of Northern-sect, monitoring all suspicious activity that might relate to the murderer—"

"Is that the kind of job you gave Sasuke, then?" Naruto asked, interrupting. "Did you send him out to monitor places where Gaara could—"

"Sasuke made his own choices that got him to where he is—"

"_What_ choices?" Naruto asked, urgently. "Tell me exactly what the hell happened."

Masashi looked at Naruto like he was an insect. "If it wasn't for you everything would have gone according to plan, and we wouldn't be in this damned mess—"

"Tell us what it is the fuck you've done!" Naruto shouted, his voice louder than he intended it to be.

"Naruto," Kakashi started.

"_No_. Why the hell are they doing this? Walking around the subject like we're fucking idiots. Tell me what you did to Sasuke," he growled, getting in Masashi's face.

"I didn't do anything to that brat." Masashi hissed back at him, not the least bit intimidated. "He wanted to do more, and be more than everyone else in the department, so he kept a lead from us and went on his own to find Gaara. I don't know what the hell happened to him, and it isn't my fault he's missing."

Naruto's face fell, dismayed. "He got a lead? What lead?"

Masashi shrugged. "He claimed to have known where Gaara lived." He said condescendingly. "As far as I know he found him, and is now dead, or he hasn't and is now hiding in shame. Either way he's a disgrace to the department—"

"I'll show you fucking disgrace to the department!" Naruto shouted, making a grab for Masashi's collar. In an instant three of the police officers who'd come in with the chief stepped up to grab the blonde by the shoulders and threw him onto the ground, while two others took their guns out of the holsters in unison and pointed to him."

"Naruto!" that was Iruka, getting up from his chair. He was stopped by Kakashi putting a hand out to block him.

When Naruto looked up to see two guns pointed at him, he shook for an entire minute, shaking the fear off, until he frowned deeply, clenching his trembling hands. "I pointed my fist at him. Not a gun." He said lowly. "Look what you've done to them," he continued, looking at the chief. "They're probably on edge all the time, waiting for Gaara to kill them and their families. And you've taught them to raise a gun at someone who wants to punch someone else?"

"They have no intentions of shooting." Masashi replied easily. "Only intimidation. Just in case you choose to attack."

Naruto scowled as he stood back up.

"Naruto that was uncalled for," Iruka hissed at him, like a chastising father.

The blonde paid him no mind for the time being. "Don't insult Sasuke that way." He said, looking at Masashi with hard eyes. "He has a wife. A kid."

"Just stop blaming me for his mistakes." The man replied. "He made his choices—"

"And you've made yours." Kakashi said, stepping up again. "Dad you've made a mistake. Not involving the other branches in this investigation has not only endangered innocent lives but—"

"It doesn't matter what I've done." The chief said angrily. "It's over now, because you and that damned brat have exposed us to the damn authorities—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Naruto started, raising a hand. "all I did was go to the Asylum to get some answers from Gaara's uncle. I didn't—"

"You had no business doing that either." The chief said. "What's got us in deep shit is what you told people _before_ you started your asinine interrogation. You made it seem as if you were part of a legal investigation. The woman who went to the police said two _cops_" he said the word with a sneer_,_ "came and began asking questions, and that they found out some interesting things—do you have any idea what you idiots have done?"

"We shouldn't be blamed for a mistake you made," Kakashi growled at his father. "What you're doing is illegal. Petty homeland criminals are alright, but when you have someone like Gaara out and about you alert all branches—it's the _law_."

Masashi scowled in his son's direction. "No one was supposed to find out. Our plans were fool-proof, and we were so close until Sasuke somehow wiped out our leads. He must have been on to something, and made Gaara retreat even further into secrecy—"

"It all makes sense now," Kakashi said, with enlightenment in his voice. "The way you guys have been acting, the choices you've been making, the reason why you haven't piled wanted posters all over Northern-sect. You're so desperate to find Gaara that you've been going against the rules of the force. Every time something remotely related to Gaara gets picked up, you run to it blindly, ignoring the courtesy you're supposed to extend as officers. I mean, the way you picked up Naruto randomly when he was waiting for the boy, the way you charged to my apartment building with an entire team—you people are desperate, and you're selfish—"

"You don't know anything about this." Masashi snarled at his son. "You've always been this way. Judgy. Soft. That's why you couldn't make it in this police force."

"_No_, the reason why I couldn't make it in this damn place was because I refuse to work for a man who'd insult the _love of my life_—"

"The _love_ of your—" Masashi took a step back, with a hand on his face. An incredulous bark escaped his lips. "Call it what you want Kakashi. We are not having this conversation."

"You're right, we're not having this conversation." Shikamaru said, a tight frown adorning his lips. "We have more important things to talk about. Now that this branch is going to be exposed somehow, we have to cover up the months of research we've done by ourselves—"

"Are you seriously talking about lying to the press and other police while three outsiders who could easily expose you for the bastards you are stand in the room with you?"

"We know you aren't going to tell, Kakashi." Shikamaru answered the man lightly. "You've seen what we've done. Taken note of our odd behavior, and yet you haven't really confronted the chief about it until now. Deep down you were hoping that there were good reasons for all of this. Maybe making up some of your own, and now that you know the truth you still won't tell, because you love your father."

Kakashi hesitated, and Naruto swallowed. Now that he thought about it, Kakashi talked about the police like what they were doing was for the greater good. He never thought the man sounded unsure about it before but now…

"Besides," Shikamaru said. "You have obviously involved yourself in this thing somehow." He said looking at Naruto with searching eyes.

Naruto took a small step back. Did they somehow find out about the letter he found in his mail?

"On the matter concerning the others finding out what we've done," said Chouji timidly. "Can't we just say we only started investigations? That we didn't have time to alert anyone else because—"

"It's going to be more complicated than that." Masashi said. "Neither Kakashi or Naruto are cops, and people think it's one of us that went to the Asylum. When they find out it was an ex-cop and some random civilian, people are going to wonder how those two could know about it and not them, and the police branch that informed them of the investigation are going to be in trouble. Us."

"We can make it simpler, than that." Kakashi said. "Just tell them we're cops—"

"Absolutely out of the question." Masashi hissed, glaring in his son's way. "There will be press conferences, media reports. We can't have the faces of non-police officers representing this branch—"

"We could find two officers from this branch who look like Naruto and Kakashi and make them be the face of the investigation—"

"No." Masashi replied, with a shake of his head. "People have seen them. They'll know if we use decoys."

There was a bit of silence between them, and Naruto felt his head spinning. There was so much to take in. He didn't even know if he understood it all. The thing that ran in his head the most, however, was the bit about Sasuke. He'd been involved in the hunt to find Gaara and wanted to do more? That sounded like him. He just didn't understand the part about the lead Masashi said Sasuke had. He somehow found out where Gaara lived? How was that possible? And if it was true, then maybe…

Naruto swallowed. Maybe Sasuke was really…? No, he thought, shaking his head. He wouldn't think that. Not now.

"We'll think about the technicalities of this later on," Masashi said waving an exhausted hand.

"But you said the media was going to be involved in this." Neji said from the back. "You know they'll be here in the morning, trying to get as much information as they can—"

"They don't even know the whole story about our hiding. The forefront of their questions will be about what two of our so-called cops found out about Gaara's uncle. Their biggest question will be whether or not we fear a re-evaluation on the court's decision to send Gaara to jail for the first time, or decide to put the uncle through a trial—"

"Yeah, but the question will come up." Chouji said, stepping up. "They'll ask us why one of us went there in the first place, and how long we've been failing to tell the other branches—"

"Not to mention the fact that someone told another police department about your visit. So that department will have questions of their own, won't they? Maybe we won't have to worry about that going into the press yet, but it's coming none-the-less." Neji continued.

Masashi breathed deeply, and put his head down. "We'll figure something out." He said lowly. "For now I want everyone who doesn't have a night shift to get the hell out of here." He said, taking a step to leave the room.

"Wait," Kakashi said. "There's still the matter of why Naruto and I came here in the first place."

Masashi paused, and looked at them. "Yes, why are you here?"

Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other. Now that they knew what the police had done to hide evidence they'd found about Gaara, was it really smart to tell them now? It didn't matter anyway, because they already told—

"Naruto says he received a letter from Gaara."

Neji.

Masashi raised a slow eyebrow at that, and Shikamaru shifted. "What?" the chief asked.

"He received a letter, addressed to his apartment, with no return address."

Masashi paused, and Naruto could see him tightening his jaw. "Can I see the letter?"

His son handed it to him, and Masashi read the letter slowly. When he finished reading it, his face seemed to fall, very slowly. "Why would he send this to you?" he asked, and it was a whisper.

Naruto frowned. What was the tone of voice he was detecting from the man? It was as if he was…disappointed? No, that wasn't it. It was env—

"I've felt for a time that Naruto was somehow involved in all of this." Kakashi said, interrupting his thoughts. "No matter how innocent he was to all of this, a lot of the things that lead to Kaze's end up involving him—"

"Yes, but why did Sabako send this to him? He doesn't have anything—"

"He must have something to do with it." Shikamaru said, looking at Naruto with searching eyes, "If Kaze sent him that letter." He'd just finished reading the letter from over the chief's shoulder.

"But that doesn't make any sense." The man replied harshly. "It doesn't make any _sense_."

"He also received a card." Kakashi said. "It said "a gift" in Latin."

"And where's the gift?" Shikamaru asked. "Do you have it with you?"

Kakashi shook his head. "All that came with it was this letter. We think maybe the letter was the gift. Maybe a gift of knowing what's coming or something like that."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Really." He murmured. "Nothing else came with that?" he turned to face Naruto then, and looked at him with those searching eyes again.

Naruto shook his head slowly. "No." he replied. "There wasn't anything else."

Shikamaru continued to stare at him. "Huh." He said, lightly, before turning to look at the letter again. "Do you have any idea what it means?"

"Of course we have ideas." Kakashi said. "But that's all they are. _Ideas_. We won't see what it all means until this all somehow happens in time."

"And you think Sabako wants to meet Naruto in the future?" Masashi asked, frowning.

"That's what the letter says." Kakashi said, nodding. "And he signed his name," he stressed. "That must mean—"

"That Kaze wants us to know it's him..." Shikamaru whispered, looking at the ground. "Something is going to happen soon." He continued, "And it seems Naruto is in the middle of it."

Masashi growled and smacked that letter into his son's chest. "I doubt this means anything." He said. "Sabako has nothing to do with Naruto—this must be a trick that a friend of yours sent you. How many people have you told about Sabako?"

"Dad, you can't be serious—" Kakashi said, slow anger and disbelieving showing in his face.

"We don't have time for this!" Masashi said, shaking his head. "We have plans to make, and some stupid sob story about the murderer's uncle to contain before—"

"_Some_ sob story?" Naruto said, incredulously. "It's not just some sob story. Gaara was _raped_." He hissed the word out, and it hurt him to say it. "That monster screwed with his mental stability, and maybe Dr. Kabuto couldn't really see it because Gaara was so damned secretive in his sessions, but it all makes sense now—"

"What did you say?" Masashi asked, his eyes wide.

Naruto paused, looking at the way the chief stared at him. Shikamaru was looking at him fiercely, with enlightenment evident in his eyes.

"I—" he hesitated. "What?"

"The name. What did you say?"

Naruto furrowed his brows. "Dr. Kabuto?" he said slowly.

The blonde say the chief clench his fists. "And how the hell do you know about him?" he asked gravely.

Naruto stuttered, hesitating again. Why were they looking at him like that? "I…I got his name from the papers Chouji gave me that time at Sakura's house." He said lightly.

"You did _what_?" he heard Neji hiss, at his partner.

"I wanted to know more about Gaara." Naruto continued. "So I found out whether he still worked at the hospital and visited him—"

"_When_." Masashi hissed at him.

"A-a few days ago, why—"

"God _damn_ it all to—" Masashi paused, again interrupted by his own anger. He turned around and began to pace frantically.

"What, _what_?" Naruto exclaimed. "What have I done?"

"Nothing that Kaze didn't expect you to." Shikamaru said lowly, looking at Naruto with those fierce, calculating eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" Kakashi asked, stepping in. "Dad, why are you—"

"The case today." Shikamaru said, turning to face Kakashi. "We don't know if it was a double suicide or homicide-suicide. All we know is that Dr. Kabuto Yakushi is dead."

"Wh—"

_What_. Naruto felt his eyes widen until he feared they would fall out of their sockets. _What_. Kabuto was…

That was…

"Why?" he whispered. "What happened?" All that went through his head was how he planned to go back to visit Kabuto, because he'd forgotten to take the papers Chouji had given him in the beginning—

"We don't know how. Or why." Shikamaru said. "All we know is we found this letter." he fumbled in his pocket for a moment, before he took out a piece of paper crumpled and folded so many times it looked like trash.

"Detective," Masashi called out to Shikamaru in warning but Shikamaru ignored him.

"He was in my dreams," he started. "Entirely human, not machine. He has impostered himself a detective, and he will roll with the dawn."

Naruto stiffened. _What_?

"He will want what you have acquired through sacrifice at the expense of nothing." Shikamaru continued. "He is infinite noise, and I bring infinite silence, to which I find unwilling to exercise to his infinity." Shikamaru looked at Naruto then. "Withhold nothing. Let him know me. And you will be forgiven."

There was a tense silence in the room.

It was Iruka who broke it. "Naruto," he said slowly. "I think that letter's about _you_."

Naruto blinked rapidly, and took a deep breath. And still, his breath lay out of reach. "I—" he chocked on his on words, and let out a surprised cough.

Kakashi moved beside him to pat his back. "Are you alright?"

Naruto looked at Kakashi with disbelieving eyes. Was he _alright_? How could he be alright? Gaara knew. He _knew_. How could he have known that Naruto would be there? That he was going to pretend to be a detective? How did he _know_?

"This can't be right." Masashi said, pausing in his pacing the glare at Naruto. "What does _he_ have to do with _anything_?" he seethed.

"Just let it go, chief." Shikamaru said, facing Masashi for only a moment. "This was never about you. It was Naruto Kaze wanted apparently. All this time…"

Masashi hissed and turned away with a scowl.

"Dad," Kakashi started slowly.

"This changes everything," Shikamaru said slowly.

"Hold on a minute," Neji said, coming forward. "You mean to tell me that this kid plays a part in this after all? How is that even possible?" he turned to face Naruto then, with a glare.

Naruto didn't even have the heart to feel offended. Instead the organ was pumping furiously in his chest, and his breaths couldn't keep up. He feared hyperventilating, and the only thing keeping him from falling to the floor was his hand on the desk.

How did Gaara _know_?

He shut his eyes and took in another breath.

Kakashi was right. How could he have thought he'd be able to do this on his own? The audacity of that thought struck him hard now. He didn't know what Gaara wanted, whether it was to kill him, or to fool him somehow. All he knew was that he was a pawn somehow. Gaara was playing with him, using him as a tool to…

To what? And again that frustration came back, because he knew nothing. Everyone here was so in the dark, and the cops were keeping secrets—

It was all messed up. Nothing was going the way it should.

"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Chouji asked, lightly. "The media is going to spread all over this like wildfire. Everyone will be reminded that Gaara's still out there. The panic that this will cause…"

"Not to mention how the other branches are going to expose us for what we've done…" Neji added, gravely.

"You have no one to blame but yourselves." Kakashi said to that. "You can lie your way out of it, but they'll still be suspicious. The only thing you can do is fill them in on the investigation—"

"Out of the question." Masashi snarled. "It's bad enough that we're—"

"Are you kidding me?" Kakashi growled, looking at his father. "Why are you always failing to see _reason_, dad? Even if you don't tell them yourselves, the world is going to remember that Kaze's still out there. There's going news reports, documentaries, and—"

"This could actually be very good for us." Shikamaru said. "Now that the media's involved, if we side step or carefully answer questions pertaining to our secrecy, then perhaps the attention this case is getting will make it even more grand when we finally capture Kaze."

"Except now that when he sees that every knows about him, he will probably hide out somewhere and we'll never find him—"

"That's not possible." Shikamaru replied to Neji. "Apparently, Gaara wants to meet Naruto. His past letters have shown how…reliable he can be with his predictions. I say this is all part of a plan."

"You're saying he wanted Naruto to visit the Looney bin and spark things up? The same way he expected Naruto to see the doctor?"

"Exactly." The detective replied with a nod of his head.

"How does he know about that?" Naruto spoke, his voice trembling even as he willed it not too. "How does he know? I didn't tell anyone but Kakashi that I was going to those places, and I can't imagine, how the hell—"

"We have to check for wires, and bugs." Chouji said. "Now that we know Kaze has you involved, we need to check on your apartment. Your computer. Maybe he somehow tapped onto your network to see all the searches you made, or had installed microphones into your apartment."

Naruto, surprisingly relaxed. Bugs and wires, he thought to himself. That made sense. It took away the sense of supernaturalism that Gaara seemed to be composed of at the moment, and made him more human. For a moment he thought Gaara was some sort of psychic being, who couldn't be stopped because of what he knew. If they found taps and wires in his apartment, then it would only prove that the man was very sneaky, and knew how to plan.

"You're right." Shikamaru said, nodding to Chouji. "That would be the best course of action for now."

"And what about planning for when the press comes?" Neji asked.

Shikamaru looked at Kakashi, then at Naruto. "We have to take it as it comes." He said quietly. "We don't have to answer anything yet. We will say we're busy, and have a lot of work to do."

"And what if they ask about what we're doing on the Gaara case?"

"We will tell them that we've never stopped working on finding him. But we won't tell them about the leads we've accumulated over the months." He replied.

"That's what I wanted to ask." Kakashi said, nodding to the detective. "What leads are you talking about? What evidence do you have towards his whereabouts that you're so confident you'll catch him?"

Shikamaru gave him an uncharacteristic smirk, "That's classified, I'm afraid."

"Are you kidding me—"

"It's nothing that will put you in danger if you don't know about it." Shikamaru said, raising a hand. "And besides, those so called leads became worthless when Sasuke decided to go out on his own."

"But how did he do that?" Naruto demanded, getting into the conversation.

Shikamaru looked at him with calm eyes. "He made Kaze change positions." He said quietly. "As a police force we'd been careful, but Sasuke by himself wasn't careful; he left tracks. By the time we came to arrest Kaze in the place we knew he was hiding, he'd gone. Everything in the tiny apartment in Sound District was gone, like no one had ever lived there before. But we know he did. And so he ran."

Naruto blinked. Taking that in. "How long ago was it that he moved? And how long did you guys wait before you did something about him being there?"

"Back then we were more careful," Shikamaru said lightly. "We'd watched him for a while. We made sure we had the right person. Then there was a single, costing mistake, and we lost track of him completely. That's why we don't hesitate when there are even the tiniest clues towards his whereabouts. We attack, full force, because he's fast. And I feel like another chance at catching him lies in you, Naruto." He said , nodding to the blonde. "So long as we're around you, monitoring you, when Kaze comes into contact with you, we'll be there."

Naruto breathed in deeply. That was…comforting.

"What do you suppose I do until then?" he asked lowly.

Shikamaru shrugged. "What did you do before all of this?"

Naruto hesitated. What _did_ he do before all of this?

He blinked. "I worked at hotel." He said, surprising himself. and in all honestly, he'd almost forgotten about that—that he'd been a simple working men, living check to check, dealing with a horrible boss, and a moody best friend.

Naruto's life used to be normal. And now…

"Do that, then." Shikamaru said. "Go back to work. Get into the regular gist of things. If Kaze stays true to himself everything will fall into the place. He will reveal himself the way he said he would. And we'll capture him."

"Easier said then done." Kakashi murmured, looking at the detective with a look of quite resignation.

"Who said any of that easy to say?" Shikamaru asked looking at the ex-policeman with a raised eyebrow. But before Kakashi could reply, he turned away to look at the rest of them, rendering the question rhetorical.

"I guess that only leaves us to plan what we're going to do when the press comes." He said. "Let's get into that."

* * *

**End of Chapter.**


	13. Everything at Once

**Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Thirteen: We Meet At Last Part Three: _Everything at Once_

**Warnings**: Violence, Dark themes, Confusing prose, Non-consensual touching

* * *

"I just can't believe you're coming back, is all." Kiba said, touching Naruto's shoulder lightly, as if checking to see if he was really there.

"What's unbelievable is that I'm wearing this uniform again…" Naruto murmured, looking at himself. All of it was pretty surreal actually. It had been a week since he started working at the hotel again, but Kiba still treated everyday like he'd been gone for three months again. He couldn't blame him. He'd forgotten so many of the rules since he'd been there, and all because his life had been such a mess. He'd forgotten what it was like to be normal, to be a simple working man. Who had time to think about filthy hotel rooms and annoying bosses when missing persons and enigmatic murderers were on the run, anyway?

He had been gone for so long, and without any note of absence, that the boss had fired him. Naruto changed his phone along with his phone number since the first time he'd written his contact information for the job, so Orochimaru had no way of reaching him except through his grandmother.

Naruto had avoided all calls by her like the plague, but he realized now that her calls must have been about his boss's complaining about him, and the fact that he'd essentially lost his job.

He had to pull a few embarrassing strings to get Orochimaru to hire him back again. Very embarrassing, he thought to himself, shaking his head. Embarrassing enough to make him wonder if this was worth it after all…

But then Kiba was looking at him, smiling at him, and patting his back, and Naruto decided that it was. It'd been so long since he could just hang out with his best friend like this. It had been a long time since he could just hang out and do anything, actually. It was nice, but the thought of what was going on in his life put a damper on everything. He could smile Kiba's way and laugh at his jokes, but his mind would drift to how fragile that moment of happiness was, and how easily it could be taken away, and how he eventually had to go back to his apartment and sit there in fear, waiting for something to happen.

The day after he and Kakashi visited the Asylum, about six people who weren't _quite_ policemen came into his apartment to check for taps, wires, and bugs. They found none. That had dismayed Naruto at first, but he remembered that he didn't usually have his biggest thoughts in his own apartment; he had them in Kakashi's, with the help of his computer. That led to a search of Kakashi's apartment, which they didn't ask permission for, but the couple accepted anyway.

And again nothing. No bugs. No wires. No anything.

Naruto frowned. They had even checked for odd footprints, fallen hair, fingernails, or dead skin on the walls, or the mouse of the computer. But nothing. All they found was dirt, and dust, dark hair, white hairs, and blonde hair in random parts of the apartment. No trace of a strange person in the residence was found, and no evidence of surveillance.

That had discouraged Naruto more than a little.

"Naruto?" Kiba asked him, jabbing him at his side. "You're making that face again."

Naruto blinked, and gave his friend a tired smile. "Sorry," he started shaking his head. "I'm just thinking..." They were making their way towards the eating lounge after having done their jobs. Orochimaru had pointedly given them different assignments, so they hadn't been able to hang out for most of the day. They had lunches together, however, which was more than they could say for the past few months.

"Thinking about _what_?" Kiba asked him. "People like you aren't supposed to think about anything but food and sleep." He jabbed another playful finger at Naruto, and the blonde smiled back.

It didn't last long however, because the nostalgia that followed was painful. He did have it easy back then, didn't he? Even when he had nothing to look forward to but work at a horrible job, and a crummy apartment, it was so much better than this…this _paranoia_ he had to live with everyday.

"Brought your own lunch this time?" Kiba asked, opening the door to the eating lounge. He sat down at the nearest table and immediately his eyes went to the television that hung above. It was on a commercial, so he turned away, uninterested.

Naruto timidly raised a single Oatmeal bar as he sat down. "It was either this or a ramen noodle cup," he said, smiling a bit at the disbelief in Kiba's face. "and you know how disgusting sink water makes the noodles taste."

Kiba shook his head, amused. "You could have just used the hot water from the coffee machine."

Naruto gave him a look of mock exasperation. "You know how _they_ get when I take all their precious hot coffee water." He said, inclining his head towards "they".

When Kiba turned to look, he saw three women sitting at a table, all wearing suits. They were part of reception. The dog lover laughed, and shook his head. "The elites." He said between his chuckles.

Naruto shook his head and began unwrapping his Oatmeal bar. "You do remember that time I did use their water, right? They blew my ears out with their complaints."

Kiba shrugged his shoulders, still laughing a bit. "I wasn't there. You told me about it. Was still funny though. I've had run-ins with a couple of them before." He said. "But they're nice to me."

"That's because you look the type to bark at them if they aren't." Naruto mumbled, taking a bite of his bar.

Kiba gave him a wide grin. "Really? Maybe that's why I could never keep a girlfriend…"

Naruto paused, mid bite at the mention of intimate friends and turned to look Kiba with cautious eyes. The man was putting his fork into his mouth.

"How's Shino?" he asked, suddenly. He honestly wanted to know.

Kiba nodded knowingly at him, before he chewed his food, and swallowed. "He's fine." He answered plainly, before taking a bite of his food.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, showing how that obviously wasn't enough, and Kiba sighed through his nose. This time he talked around his food.

"It really is fine. We're…getting along…" he said with a turn of his head, and a tint of red overcame his cheeks.

Naruto couldn't help but leer at him. "_Getting along_, are you? Is that what they're calling it these days?"

"Oh come off it, Naruto. I didn't mean it that way. I meant that it's just…nice." He shrugged. "Shino's a nice guy…He's really…" he looked away again, before he shook his head and went back to his food. "It's just my life has never been so…I don't know…non-volatile." He said. "Life with him is…simple." He shrugged again. "Sometimes it can be weird, and sometimes I'm a stupid idiot, but he always understands…" he trailed off, and put another forkful of his food in his mouth.

Naruto regarded his best friend with a small smile, and took another bite of his bar. "That must be nice." He said, mouth full.

Kiba nodded, but didn't look up. "It is."

Several moments of silence followed that. They weren't uncomfortable, but Naruto felt like something was missing. He knew that if it was a girl Kiba was dating, they would both be laughing and joking about whether or not he'd taken her to bed yet, or asking for details about her body type. But with a man it was…different. Naruto frowned at his. It shouldn't be that way.

"So…" he started, putting his empty wrapper aside. "Have you and Shino…you know…"

Kiba looked at him with an eyebrow raised in question. Naruto looked at him back at him, trying to communicate with his eyes. He saw the exact moment when it clicked, and Kiba coughed once, before massaging his throat, and looking down.

"Uh…" he said, pulling at his collar. "We…" he closed his eyes. "No. No we haven't." he said finally.

Naruto's eyes widened at that. He didn't think it was weird that…what, three months had passed and the two hadn't gone to the next level? In high school he'd been with a timid girl who had wanted to wait until marriage, and he'd been fine with that. It was just weird for _Kiba_. Maybe the fact that Shino was a man, made him want to take it slow.

"Oh," he said, lamely. "That's…good? Are you guys waiting…or…?"

Kiba, who'd been attempting to put another forkful of food into his mouth, sighed and put the fork down. "I…we're not really waiting." He said. "I just…don't feel…so up to it, you know?" he mumbled. "I mean…everything else is nice…I don't know why we need to go…further…" he played with his food for a moment.

Naruto frowned. "Well…at some point, don't you think Shino's gonna…I don't know…complain?"

Kiba frowned hard. "He never complains…" he said softly. "He always understands…I can do no wrong with him. He's—" he stopped then, and shook his head. "He's in love with me." he mumbled.

Naruto didn't know what to say. Was that a bad thing? Maybe Kiba was just not ready? That was understandable. But he spoke as if he had no intentions of…

"Kiba, are you scared?" he asked bluntly, and felt bad when he saw Kiba stiffen.

It was long moments before he spoke. "I don't know what I am…I just…We get intimate…and it feels _great_, but whenever it goes too far I'm…not so excited anymore. I don't know," he said with a shrug. "Maybe I am scared." He paused then, and seemed to be thinking hard about his next words. "Sometimes," he started, "I think that…I'm not really _gay_. Like Shino is the only man I'll ever feel…_this_ way for."

Naruto blinked. What way? "Love?" he asked, his eyes wide.

Kiba ducked his head, "Yeah." he said simply.

Naruto gave Kiba a slow smile. "Well I guess Shino will never have competition, then." He said, trying to make light of the conversation.

Kiba didn't smile back. "I should just give in." he said. "Just let Shino take me. He deserves it, doesn't he?" he asked, looking at the blonde with pleading eyes. "He's been nothing but nice to me. All I need to do is freaking lay there." He finished with a frustrated huff, and leaned back in his chair. "Let's not talk about this. Let's talk about you. Have you gotten laid lately?"

Naruto ducked his own head then, and when he looked back up it was to shake his head. "No. I've been…"

Naruto paused. He knew he couldn't tell Kiba the truth. There was so much that he couldn't tell. He felt a small pang at his heart at that. He hated keeping secrets; they ate him away, and made him feel so alone. If something were to happen to him, Kiba would never know why, because he never told him what was going on, what he was going through.

But Naruto knew that it was better to leave his friend out of this. It was the way it should be.

"Oh hey, did you hear about this?" Kiba said, looking at the space above Naruto's head.

When Naruto turned to see, he was faced with the television.

_Murderer's Shocking Past Revealed_, the headlines said. Naruto straightened in his chair.

Was it happening? he asked himself, squinting at the screen. If so, Shikamaru was good. He'd promised to stall the media somehow, while he looked for ways to explain to them about the department's choices while on the hunt for Gaara, and Naruto didn't know how he did it, but it had been a week, and the story was only now airing. There had been a teaser report the day after Naruto and Kakashi had visited the police station, but now it seemed like a full-blown story.

"It's been all over the news since this morning." Kiba said. "Remember that Guru Sadako kid or whatever his name was, who killed all those people in his school? Apparently his uncle screwed him up good when he was little. People are thinking about whether burning that sick bastard alive deserved life in prison."

"Mmm," Naruto started, trying to sound casual. "I don't really remember the whole Gaara thing," and truthfully, he didn't. He didn't know about it until almost a year ago. "But I think that it would be pointless to evaluate anything. Gaara served his time, and was given parole, there's nothing that could change that. What matters is whether or not the police are going to let this detail about him getting raped when he was younger affect the court's decision when he's inevitably caught."

When Kiba said nothing back, Naruto turned to look at him.

The dog lover looked back at him surprised eyes. "You…actually sounded a little intelligent, just then. Insightful, even." He said, looking at Naruto suspiciously. "Did you take time off of work to go to school or something?"

Naruto hesitated. Why not? He thought. He needed a lie that could hold up if he ever disappeared again. He just hoped Kiba didn't ask for the details. "Yeah," he said lightly. "I uh…I just thought, since my grandmother has the money anyway, I might as well waste it on something like an education, right?" he said, smiling softly.

Kiba smiled back, and stared at the blonde for a moment. "Is that why I get the feeling you've changed?" he asked softly, after several moments had passed.

Naruto looked at him, bemused. "What do you mean? I haven't changed."

Kiba narrowed non-malicious eyes at him. "It's just…you seem more adult. Like you've grown up in the past few months."

Naruto blinked once. Then twice. The second one was a slow one. He understood what Kiba was saying. "I see it in you too." he said. "Change. You seem more adult too…" he trailed off, and looked down, suddenly weighed down by a wave of guilt. "I'm really sorry I wasn't there to see you grow, Kiba."

Kiba looked at him with a bit of surprise, and smiled hesitantly. "What a weird thing to say…" he said, chuckling nervously. "But I don't blame you. I wish I was there to see you grow too."

Naruto nodded, but still felt sad. Kiba went back to eating his food, and he turned to look back at the television. It showed an old picture of Gaara when he was a teenager, staring expressionlessly into the camera.

"_His name was Gaara Sabako Kaze, and was a mere twelve years of age when he murdered his father, and nearly burned his uncle to death, in this very house."_ said a tall woman, standing in front of a small and shaggy home.

Naruto's eyes widened. Was that where Gaara lived? Were they broadcasting this from Suna? They sure did their research.

"_And merely four years later, after a highly controversial early release from prison, Mr. Kaze struck again in his high school, murdering a staggering seventy-five students and teachers-"_

"_Seventy_ five?" Kiba said, looking up again. "Why did they even let this freak out the first time?"

Naruto wondered about that for a moment. Why _did_ they let Gaara leave prison after only two years? He thought there was at least a minimum of ten years to be spent before murderers could even be considered for release. He remembered someone telling him about the man showing good behavior, but that didn't seem to make much sense…

"_For years the crimes of this young boy have boggled the minds of the people of Northern-sect. What could possess a child to commit murder? What happened to make this young boy so cruel? Today we might have the answers. This man here,"_

It showed a picture of a young man with feminine features, and a soft smile. He had blonde hair that fell over his shoulders and bright green eyes.

Naruto squinted. Was that…_Ito Yashamaru_? He leaned back in his chair, trying to contain the anger that was building in him. Is that how he looked when he did those things to Gaara? So innocent? So _friendly_? Someone who looked like that could get away with everything. And he did, Naruto thought. For years the bastard _did_ get away with it.

"…_is the only known victim of Mr. Kaze to have survived. After suffering third degree burns all over his body, brought by the hands of his nephew, he was admitted to the Sound District Lunatic Asylum, where he's been for many years. Police officers, who'd been interested in getting more clues for the dying investigation of Mr. Kaze's whereabouts went to visit the asylum to speak to the so called innocent victim. They did not find clues. Instead, they found truth. Peter?" _the woman said, nodding her head to the camera_._

The screen changed, and a man nodded to the camera now. He stood in front of a gate, and when the blonde squinted he realized that it was the gates of the asylum.

"_Precisely Diana, they did find truth behind the walls of the asylum you see behind me, and let me tell you that truth was appalling. The man you see on your screen, Yashamaru Ito confessed to years of sexual abuse, not once, but twice. Police officials and the press came the day after the report came from a simple security guard who'd watched the confession herself, no doubt hoping for justice to be served, and Mr. Ito had nothing to hide. He told the press and others in disturbing detail of the heinous crimes he committed against the once young Gaara Sabako."_

The screen split, and Naruto saw another man at a desk, sitting forwards with a furrowed brow_. "Peter this is Jacob, and you were there when this Ito person confessed were you not?"_

"_Yes Jacob I was. There was a question of whether we could trust him, since he was after all in a place for mentally unstable individuals, but the way he spoke proved to us that he was simply a sick monster."_

"_How right you are about that. Now tell me, what position do you think this puts Mr. Kaze in, now that the world knows how he was treated? Do you think he'll somehow come out of hiding or make it even harder for people to find him? And is Mr. Ito going to be arrested for his confession? "_

There was time before the man answered, so there seemed to be a time lapse between the two.

"_First of all, there is still a live debate on whether or not this technically insane man should be tried for his crimes. Family members of the victims of Mr. Kaze are on both sides of the debate, some of them saying Mr. Kaze deserved everything he got and that Mr. Ito should be left alone, and others saying that Mr. Ito made Mr. Kaze this way, and therefore deserved capital punishment for essentially having a hand at the deaths of their sons and daughters during that fateful day so many years ago."_

"_Both sides you say?" _the man asked_._

And Naruto felt himself ask the same question. He was appalled. When he saw around the room, at the people who were watching the program, they seemed just as appalled. How could anyone say that Gaara _deserved_ to get raped as a child because of the things he did in the _future_?

"_And it's hard to say that Mr. Kaze will be caught any time soon." _The man in front of the asylum continued_. "Mr. Kaze has been an enigma from the beginning. No one can understand or predict his movements as the police tells me. However, they highly doubt that Mr. Kaze will come out of hiding."_

"_And what have the police done to find this man all this time? He's been missing for almost two years. And, if they do find him, do you think the revelation of what Mr. Ito did to him will change things somehow? Perhaps when the court comes into play?"_

"_It's hard to say for sure," _the man answered_. "But—"_

"Naruto, we gotta go."

The blonde blinked and turned to face his friend. "What?"

"It's Wednesday. We only get thirty minutes."

Naruto frowned, and sagged a bit in his chair. He'd forgotten about that. "Right." He said, standing up. "Let's go." He hoped he could look at the report when he went to eat dinner at Iruka's apartment this evening.

"I've been partnered with one of the newbies for a series of Master Bedrooms, so you'll probably be done before I am." Kiba said begrudgingly. "Shino's picking me up at around 6:00pm, so if you can wait, we'll drive you home again."

Naruto nodded gratefully. "That would be awesome, thanks. I have a single room, now, and a few more later, but I guess I'll take my time so I don't have to wait too long."

Kiba patted his friend on the back, before they parted ways in the hallway.

Naruto didn't have a long way to go. As usual, he had to take the stairs, as employees weren't allowed to ride the elevators, but he only had to go to the third floor. Usually it took him thirty minutes to fix up a single room, but he would use the one hour time slot he had to actually do a good job. He wanted to immerse himself in his work and take his mind off of things that made him shake, and shiver, and want to claw his eyes out in fear. Work would do that for him. Kiba would do that for him.

When he entered the room, he sighed when he saw that there was no real mess. The bed was made in the standard hotel way, with the pillows fluffed and two inches apart between each as they spanned at the head of the bed, and the sheets were smoothed out and unwrinkled, folded at the end to serve as a sort of feathery footrest. The floors weren't dirty, and the air smelled clean. Everything seemed to be in order.

Except for the dark black bag that lay on the bedside table.

Naruto blinked. Or was that a purse? It looked to be made of some sort of leather material. He wondered if whoever left it there had forgotten it, or if the person was still using the room. He had assignments like that before, when he had to clean a room while someone was still living in there.

When he looked around the room a bit more, he could see nothing else that would indicate that someone was currently staying there, so made his way to the bathroom. People usually left their toiletries out when they planned on coming back to the hotel.

He made his way there, hoping that he'd find that evidence, because if he didn't he would have to give the bag to reception and fill out paper work for the lost and found. Although that would take up time that he wanted to kill, it was still a hassle, and he didn't feel like dealing with reception just yet.

When he opened the bathroom door, he let himself smile a bit. There was definitely someone still living here, he thought, as he did a once over of counter just below the mirror. There was an incredible amount of makeup loitering the counter. The only thing he could name with his poor knowledge of cosmetics was the red lipstick smearing parts of the sink red.

For someone who'd kept the sleeping area so neat, it was almost surprising to see the bathroom in such a mess. He'd seen worse, of course, so even the incredible amount of black hair in the sink and tub didn't really disturb him.

There was a rule about cleaning rooms when the residents were still using it, and that was to get the room into the state it was in before the person moved in, while touching as little of their stuff as possible. Naruto found that difficult as he sorted through the make up to try and make room on the counter and clean the red and black smudges. When he moved to take the hair out of the sink, he found the hair smudging against his gloved fingers, leaving dark marks. He made a face as he collected them, wondering how this person (he supposed it was woman) managed to make her hair sticky this way.

He paused when he came across a container that seemed to have been ripped to bits in frustration beside the sink. He sighed as he picked it up, piece by piece. He caught the words 'hair dye' and some of things he saw made more sense. He'd seen something like this before, when he'd first started working at the Hotel. It used to be a sketchier place back then, so there were always strange people coming in dark haired, and leaving blonde. It was usually prostitutes and strange looking men.

He wondered if this woman was a prostitute.

He cleaned the bathroom as much as he could without disrupting too much of her things. He held in his cry of disgust when he found an entire panty, wrapped and bloodied, in what he knew was some sort of make-shift sanitary napkin in the corner of the tub. Yes, it was definitely a prostitute. They were always filthy this way. The only reason why the sleeping quarters weren't as horrible as the bathroom was probably because it was where she did her "business" and she didn't want her customers paying less because of uncleanliness.

Naruto shook his head, chastising himself. Who was he to judge a prostitute? They were just doing what they could to survive.

He just wished, they were _neater_, he thought, grimacing as he held the soiled panty. He wondered if he should just throw the entire thing away, or separate the napkin from the panty, and throw the napkin away.

Naruto snorted at his own thoughts. Screw _that_. He threw the entire panty, napkin and all, back into the corner of the tub. He shivered a bit. Why did he pick it up in the first place? He wanted to do a thorough job today, but there was only so much he was willing to do.

Cleaning the rest of the bathroom was easy. He replaced the towels, the shampoo, and hung the complimentary "How am I doing? Call the front desk for any complaints" card on the handle of the door.

He left the bathroom with two trash bags he'd filled from cleaning, and checked the clock on the beside-table to see the time. It told him that it had been forty-five minutes since he started. That gave him fifteen minutes to go to his next job, which was another single room.

He made his way towards the door with a sigh. If a single bathroom took him forty-five minutes, how was he going to clean a bedroom that someone actually used? As he pulled the door of the hotel room closed, his eyes landed on the black bag on the floor.

Naruto paused.

_Wait_.

He glanced back at the bag. Which was on the _floor_.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Wasn't it on the desk when he came in? Did it fall down? Or did…

Naruto stiffened.

Or was someone in the room?

He looked around cautiously. The bed looked the same. He'd just been to the bathroom so he knew no one was there. The room was a single open space. There was no way anyone else could be in here. He sighed out a breath he was holding and walked to the bag.

Obviously it had fallen down. He would pick it up. He had no reason to be scared anyway. If there was someone in the room, it would be the person currently staying there. Naruto would simply have to explain that he was the cleaning person, and make his way out. No big deal. People could come in and out of the room any time they wanted.

When he picked up the bag, he was surprised to find it incredibly heavy. He grunted a bit, as he lifted it. What did the woman have in here? He didn't see any suitcases, so maybe she'd packed all her belongings in the single bag? Naruto grunted again when he realized that it would take both hands to lift it, and put his other hand on the bottom of the bag. He froze when he realized how incredibly wet and cold the bottom was. It was as if the person had filled it with ice.

Naruto had seen his fair share of strange things in hotel rooms that made a bag full of ice seem normal, but it was still strange. When he finally put the bag on the table, he couldn't help but make a move to look inside.

He paused as he began pulling the top apart, as his conscience decided to show itself at the last minute, making him remember about the privacy policy the Hotel promised it's residents. But he pushed it aside, because the Hotel also had a no-stolen goods guarantee, and employees stole things anyway.

The bag was strange. He couldn't just open it and see what was inside. He had to unhook a flap, and when he did that there was strange string he had to untie. When he did _that_, he found that there was indeed a small bag of ice at the top. He supposed there was another one on the bottom since he'd felt a concentration of wetness there. Out of curiosity he slightly lifted the first bag of ice, to see if the prostitute would really be weird enough to fill an entire purse with it.

But what he saw wasn't crystal and cold. Instead it was black. Naruto squinted. What was that? It looked like a mass of dark fur, curly and course. He moved a finger to touch it, and shivered a bit. It felt like hair on a freezing scalp—

"Who are you?"

Naruto yelped, and dropped the ice bag on top of the…whatever it was.

He turned to answer the harsh voice that asked him the question, a stuttering apology already on the tip of his tongue, but he choked on the words when he saw the woman before him.

Hair so black, skin so white, lips so red, glasses so thick—

It looked nothing like her.

But he knew.

"S—" he barely stopped himself in time. Barely. He'd talked about this moment with the others, in detail. They told him to pretend that the disguise was working, like it was a normal encounter—

But how could he?

How _could_ he?

When he knew it was her. He knew it in the way he heart hammered in chest, and in the way sweat formed at the back of his ears, he _knew_.

"I-I'm so sorry." He whispered.

And his voice sounded like he was trying to hold in vomit, and his hands were trembling at his sides, and the woman, no not the woman, she, _she - _because he knew who she was, _she_ who was looking at him with wide knowing eyes, and that was the key word wasn't it, it was knowing her eyes were knowing, she _knew_.

She knew.

Naruto gave her a half smile. "I…I found the bag on the floor. I shouldn't have snooped. I'm sorry." The tremor in his voice was evident, but he hoped she would take it as nervousness for being caught, and not nervousness for knowing who she was.

Because it was her. It was.

And it was killing him inside. He had hoped that when this moment came it would have been someone else, so that when he reunited with _her_ it would have been a glorious moment with her jumping into his arms and him twirling her around—but no. It wouldn't be that way. It would be this way.

"Who sent you." She growled, and her hands were shaking as she reached behind her.

Naruto followed that hand, and then looked into her eyes. Brown now, covering the gorgeous green he knew she had—

"WHO SENT YOU HERE!" it was a shrill shout, and Naruto took a step back. Only then did he see the fatigue in her eyes, the desperateness in her features.

"I-I had to clean the room." He said lightly. His heart reached out to her. How awful had these past few months been? Frantically looking for her husband, having no one to turn to, having to change her identity into this _ugly_ form—

"What's inside the bag?" she said, her voice shaking, as if she would cry at any moment. "WHAT IS IT!" she screamed in that shrill voice again.

Naruto gave a look of confusion. She didn't know what was in the bag? Then why was it in her—

He paused when he heard a shifting. The dark haired woman was taking a step backwards, looking at Naruto with fear and regret in her eyes. Naruto gave her a sympathetic look. He wanted to hold her, wanted to tell her that it was okay, that he was on her side. The look in her eyes was telling him so many things about what she had to have gone through, the fear that she must feel everyday—

"Please," he said moving forwards.

"Stay _BACK_!" she screamed again, doing an odd movement with her arms that Naruto couldn't understand, until—

Until he found himself staring into the barrel of a gun.

Naruto stiffened.

Oh.

_Oh_.

_Kill her before she kills you._

_Oh._

Naruto found himself blinking, trembling slightly—but not in fear. It was in a sort of…understanding.

Was he going to die today?

He closed his eyes.

_Kill her before she kills you_

But he'd hidden the gun. It was nowhere near him, now…

_Kill her_

He wouldn't have been able to kill her if he wanted to…

_Kill her _

But that didn't matter did it? He thought to himself, clenching his fists.

_Before she kills you_

Because he would never do that.

_Before she kills you_

He would never shoot her, to keep his life.

_Before she kills you_

Not Sakura.

"I-Is it true?" she said, her voice thick, and Naruto could see her eyes glistening with tears even behind the hideous horn rimmed glasses. "A-all the letters…all the notes—are they _true_!" she shouted, jerking the gun forwards.

Naruto took a step back instinctively. He held his hands up. "I don't know what you're saying…" he said softly, trying to keep calm. His mind told him to accept his fate, but his sympathetic response was going fight or flight, and he felt his heart hammering in chest like it would claw itself out with or without his help.

"If I _kill you_," she growled through the tears, "will I see my Sasuke?" she finished in a whisper, and her lips turned upwards in a horrible grimace that was followed by a sob. "Is it _true_?" she asked again.

Naruto let his eyes dim.

So that's how it was.

Gaara was using him as pawn after all.

He didn't understand it…but he knew that Sasuke had to be the big picture in this, the centerpiece, or the focal point of this whole operation.

Gaara probably wanted Naruto to die here, to stop being a pest to him.

Naruto shut his eyes completely, and let quiet depression take over him.

So that's how it was.

"Do what you have to do." He said quietly, "Sakura." He added, because, honestly, what was the stupid plan worth if he was just a pawn, just someone who would probably be dead in a moment?

He heard Sakura's sharp intake of breath, and a long and low sob followed it. "_Naruto_," she said, through her mouth, thick with saliva. "It said you would _know_," she continued, through a sob, "that I had to kill you, before you killed me," she said, and she was raising her voice. "But you aren't trying to kill me, Naruto!" she shouted that. "_Why_?"

Meanwhile Naruto was shaking in his spot. Gaara had manipulated them all. Sakura had…She'd gotten the _same_ letter. Only with different terms this time. He bribed them with what they wanted the most. Naruto wanted to be impotant, and Sakura wanted to see Sasuke.

He wondered if anyone would get what they wanted.

If they had a choice, and if there was some truth behind it all, he hoped Sakura got what she wanted. It would mean that she lived, and that she would be reunited with her husband, and find happiness again.

"What happened to you, Sakura?" he asked quietly, calmly. He might as well get some answers before he got killed.

Sakura looked at him through those awful glasses with widening eyes. She continued to look at him for long moments before she shook her head. "No." she said quietly. "No questions. I have to do this," with that, Naruto heard the click of the gun, and the blonde knew that she was ready to shoot.

All the calmness of mind he thought he had a moment before flew out the window, and he could feel himself panicking.

"Sakura, _wait_,"

"No, talking—"

"You don't understand—!"

"_I SAID STOP TALKING_!" she jerked the gun in forwards, and poised herself with her legs spread. "I'm s-sorry Naruto." She said through clenched teeth. "But this is the only way."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak again, then closed it, then opened it. He only succeeded in making himself look like a fish.

_Shit_, he thought helplessly, as he raised his hands. "Sakura…" he said softly, looking at her with wide eyes. Was this really how it was going to be? He was going to die by the hands of the woman he wanted to be with since he was a child? It was tragic in a way that made him want to rip his heart out. Life always made him the underdog, and he was going to die the same way, he thought, tears of pain and pure fear escaping his eyes. He was going to die a nothing. Not meant to be anything, not meant to catch Gaara, or be a big part in his capture. He was nothing, and he would die nothing.

He closed his eyes, and did nothing to the tears that streaked down his face, to the cling at the small hairs of chin and hang there tragically.

Was he really going to die this way?

He heard a sluggish click of Sakura's gun.

And after that things happened very quickly.

There was a bang, like a door slamming into a wall haphazardly, and then there was a voice, cheerful, unafraid, uncaring—

"_Naruto, let's ditch this join—"_

And then Sakura had shrieked, in a sound like surprise, and—

And there was sound.

_Loud_.

Like a machine shrieking, tearing through the air in one single blow, leaving a trail of echoes like thunder in its wake.

A gunshot.

When Naruto looked up, it was like his world was in slow motion. He looked down at himself to feel for the wound that had to be there, but he couldn't _feel _it—

And he couldn't find it.

He wasn't shot.

And when he looked up, he saw Sakura standing there, back to him, facing the door with her gun shaking her hand, pointing it towards—

Towards _Kiba_, who stood there looking at the bloodied spot on his torso with quiet disbelief. And then he looked up, in that painfully slow way, and his eyes found Naruto's first. He held them, as the realization dawned on his face, and his eyes turned sad, as he began to fall.

_Fall, fall, falling—_

Then time came back to Naruto. With a speed that blinded him, as if making up for all the seconds he'd spent in slow motion.

"KIBA!" he heard himself shout, and even with time back to normal his heart still beat sluggishly in his chest. He scrambled gracelessly towards his friend and leaned over him with a cry of despair. "_Kiba_," he cried, stroking the man's hair back.

And then—

And then he didn't know what _do_, he didn't know what to _do_ and his eyes, already blurry with tears were getting blurrier—

"SOMEBODY CALL THE _POLICE_!"

Was that his voice? He didn't know, but it sounded horse and dry and _desperate_—

"Naruto,"

And that was Kiba with his eyes open, staring and at him with pleading, wide eyes, "_Naruto_," and his hand reached for the blonde blindly and Naruto held onto that hand and squeezed it for all he was worth—

"_PLEASE!"_ was that him again? Why did his voice sound like a monster's growl like deep guttural inhuman sound and the blood from Kiba's wound was spreading spreading spreading like wild fire across his chest across his stomach _where was it coming from_ all that _blood_ all that _fucking blood—_

There were others in the hallway now, moving, screaming, shuffling, shouting, saying real words and nonsense words and words that mattered and words that fuck all mattered to and Kiba, Kiba, _Kiba's_ eyes were closing they were _closing_ and—

"Kiba!" that was him again, voice, shrill, bending over to shake the dog-lover, and Kiba opened his eyes wide, startled, and he looked at Naruto like he'd never seen him before—

"Naruto," and yet it seemed like his name was the only word he knew, "_Naruto_,"

"Please, Kiba," and Naruto's voice came like a soft, high scream, and his tears were falling over his best friends face, "stay with me, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep,"

"Why am I...so _tired_," and Kiba's voice came like a breath, and his eyes dimmed again.

Naruto shook him, violently. "No! _No_! Kiba, you're not going anywhere, _Kiba_—"

"What is this,—_gurrh_!" and a cough came from his mouth, spilling out a dark liquid that Naruto wiped away desperately.

"Sir, we're going to need you to move away," and that was another voice, a woman's voice, a voice of authority and that pissed Naruto off didn't she understand that his friend was dying—

"Sir, he's going to choke on his own blood, please _move_."

And then there were hands on his shoulders pulling him away roughly, and he fought for a moment but then soft words were jumbled in his ear "Calm down son he'll be fine be strong it'll be okay you'll be okay—"

Then there were others in the hallway, men in uniform, carrying a stretcher and shouting at everyone to move aside—

Naruto was pushed backwards into the room, still on the floor, staring with wide eyes as more and more people hovered over Kiba, moving him, touching him, ripping his shirt open then lifting him and taking him away—

"_Kiba_—!"

A shriek assaulted his ears, then. A loud, steady shriek coming from behind him. And when he turned around wildly, he saw Sakura on her knees, deflated black bag in front her, holding the gun to her chest, eyes shut tight and head tilted towards the ceiling as she rocked back and forth and screamed that steady, steady scream.

And then other people were screaming too, fumbling, and falling all over the place.

But Naruto wouldn't. Couldn't.

He could only stare and wonder how long the blue, swollen head of Sasuke had been lolling around on the floor.

* * *

There had been a lot of moving.

That was what Naruto could remember for now.

A lot of moving from place to place.

Then people in his face.

Trying hard to trace—

The blood that stained his hands.

Under his nails.

All that blood.

_All the blood._

Not his.

But how he wished it were his.

How he _wished_.

There had been a lot of hands on his shoulders, a lot of pats of his arm, a lot of squeezes of his hands.

Touching him.

Consoling him.

But he'd been inconsolable.

Everyone had been there to see him that way.

Kakashi, Iruka, Shikamaru, the Chief, Chouji, Neji—

They had all been there with their eyes sympathetic and sad and worrying, and calculating and solving but they didn't care, they didn't _care_ about Kiba they only cared about the severed head, the severed fucking head of fucking Sasuke Uchiha which Sakura wouldn't let go, stupid Sakura wouldn't let go of it for all she was worth she wouldn't let go—

Naruto's eyes dimmed a bit, at the thought of the love he felt for that woman. When he looked for the emotion, he found nothing but a cold hollow thing spreading across his chest.

He'd been a fool.

He'd been a _fool_.

He let his eyes skim over the silver pistol in his hand. It shone in the moonlight, and the trigger beckoned him like a temptress whore.

He was going to make this right.

He was going to make this _right_.

He knew how he would do it. He knew where he wanted the bullet to hit. Right between his eyes, so it could put a hole through his brain, and make it gush from the exit wound.

He'd never shot the gun before. He wanted to save every bullet for him. He knew it was loaded, with the way it weighed.

The bastard had wanted him to use it to kill Sakura. But he would use it to kill him instead. That was the way it should be.

"I know you're here." He said, quietly. He stood in the alley of building 1313. He'd been there every night since the day at the hotel.

He didn't know why, but he knew, the same way he knew that it'd been Sakura in that hotel room, that Gaara would come here, in this alley, to see him. He didn't know when it would happen. But he knew it would be here.

"I'll make you pay," he said to the gun, stroking it with tired fingers. It had to be one in the morning by now. The night was quiet. Very few cars passed by.

The moon was full.

"I'll make you pay!" he shouted to that moon. "I'll make you wish you'd never been born you sick, fucking _bastard_, I'm going to kill you over and over again, then burn you alive—only I won't let you live, I won't let you fucking _live_—"

It went on, like it always did. For three nights it went like this. With him coming there, cursing at the stars, with a gun in his hand, hoping, hoping to _God_ that he would just show up already so he could stab a bullet between his _eyes_—

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto paused.

And it was like ice sliding on glass. That voice.

Naruto felt the waves carry that sound into his ears, to the back of his neck until it found purchase at the base of his spine. The shake that racked through him almost made him drop the gun.

"We meet at last."

The voice came from—

A corner, he knew, but it echoed in his head like he was _everywhere_.

His hands trembled violently. So much that the gun in his hand clicked and clacked on the wall behind him.

And there was a feeling building at the base of his stomach. It was like a long hot metallic thing, coiling in his stomach, and moving into his chest and startling his heart into throbbing mechanically against his ribs.

It was _fear_.

Eating him alive. Sucking the life out of him. The will out of him—

But no. No, he wouldn't let that stop him. He lifted himself from the wall he was leaning on and turned to where he knew the voice was coming from.

He kept his head lowered, and he didn't know why—

No. He knew why. It was because of the _fear—_the fear that was coursing through his system like a living, _breathing_ heat. It made him want to bolt and run away, made him want to shit his pants—

But he wouldn't.

He _wouldn't_.

But he was still afraid, how he was _afraid_.

"Look at me, Naruto."

_Naruto_. He said his name with a roll of his tongue that made the blonde want to run out of the alley screaming, never looking back.

But there was sense in what the man said. How could Naruto shoot him between the eyes, if he didn't look at him?

It took an effort that almost shredded his will to pieces, to look up from the ground. And even then, the action took several moments, with a long pause after every inch his head inclined upwards.

Then he was looking up.

And he was staring at Gaara.

The Gaara.

Who stared back at him with bright, cold eyes.

Naruto felt cold sweat he hadn't even felt accumulate, fall from his forehead, run down the line of his nose, and cling to the hairs of his chin.

He was nothing like he'd imagined him to be.

No. He'd simply been too afraid to imagine.

But the man before him was something he would have never been able to envision anyway. The man before him was…

Unreal.

He stood tall and still, and wore dark clothes that were hidden mostly by shadows. The only thing unhidden, the only thing that illuminated relentlessly, was his face. His hair.

That blood red hair was _sharp_. That was the only way Naruto could think to describe it. Sharp, and _bright_, and long, hanging over the man's incredibly broad shoulders. His face was pale—a shocking pale, when compared to the sheer sharpness of his hair.

And there was one thing. A tattoo across his forehead. A symbol that looked Chinese, right above his eye. It made him look like a painting instead of a person.

Like a ghost instead of human being.

Standing there. With those eyes.

Those bright, bright _eyes_. Surrounded by something that looked like charcoal.

He was expressionless. He was listlessness.

And Naruto was bristling emotion that wanted to choke him to death.

"You…" he started, and for a moment he didn't recognize his voice, it was so ugly. "You killed him."

The redhead didn't even blink. He stood there, still as a statue. Staring at Naruto with those eyes.

Naruto felt like he was standing face to face with a demon. A monster. The man scared him so much.

And those eyes. Those god damned _eyes_, wouldn't look away—

"You don't remember me." the voice was more like a murmur this time, like a musing.

Then he shifted one foot forwards, and Naruto raised his gun like he'd been slapped.

"Don't move," he growled out, but the threat in the voice was bullied away by the way it shook. "S-stay where you _are_!"

Something that would have been called a smile on any other face quirked on the mouth of the redhead. It was a small and ugly thing.

"I suppose I've changed since then," he continued quietly, and he moved forwards again.

Naruto jerked the gun towards the man. "I said don't move!" he shouted. "I will shoot, _I swear I will_!"

"By all means." the redhead said simply. He moved a step back, and spread his hands and legs slightly. "Anywhere you'd like."

Naruto stared at the man with wide eyes. Did he know what he was doing? He frowned deeply, then. Of course he knew what he was doing, he fucking knew everything about everything didn't he? He probably thought Naruto would chicken out and not shoot.

Well he was going to show him.

He held the gun up and closed one eye. He didn't know how to aim the gun, he didn't know where the bullet would go. He just hoped it came close. If it didn't get the bastard between the eyes then he would get him _in_ the eye, or on the nose, or the mouth—

It didn't matter, so long as the bastard was dead—

"Aim well." The man said, and he nodded his head at Naruto, as if it was a _mutual_ agreement, as if it wasn't Naruto's decision _alone_—

And that was what did it, what made him pull the trigger—

'_click'_

Naruto opened his eyes. When had he closed them?

He had heard no bang, no grunt of pain, no body falling to the floor. And he knew he pulled the trigger.

"The top part," said the voice, and it sounded like knuckles wiped against a cracked sheath of ice. "pull it once. Then pull the trigger."

Naruto looked at the redhead with wide, fearful, calculating eyes. Did he realize that he was helping Naruto _kill_ him?

He did as he was told, and the gun made a sluggish click. Suddenly the pistol felt a little heavier, and Naruto clutched it with both hands, and raised it to Gaara's face again.

"Might I suggest," the man said lowly, "right here." He said, pointing to the spot between his eyes.

Naruto inhaled deeply, and tried to contain his scream.

This was—

That was _his_ idea.

It was like the redhead was in his mind, taking his thoughts and throwing them back in insult-

How did he _know_ everything? And what gave him the right to toy with people like this? To send them letters, and make them walk to their demise—

It was evil. The man was pure evil. Naruto thought that as he pointed the gun. His hand shook terribly, but he would hit him, he knew it. He would shoot him once, and if he was still standing he was going to shoot him again, and again, and _again_, until all the bullets were gone.

"You sick monster," he said, his voice a low growl. "I'll make you pay for what you've done."

The man did nothing, said nothing. He stood there, in the same open stance.

Waiting for Naruto to shoot.

And Naruto did.

The sound, all too familiar, pierced the air, louder than it had in the hotel room. It was like a sharp and timid crack of thunder, and it bounced off the walls and struck each of his ears like lightening.

Naruto shouted in surprise himself, because he didn't expect the gunshot to be so loud.

And the shaking of his hands became _worse_. He'd thought he'd feel better, he thought there would be a sort of relief. But instead he felt worse, and he was still shaking.

"Hmm." The hum was low, and uncalculating. Just a simple sound with no meaning.

Naruto turned to face the man with his gun raised once again. Gods if he _missed_—

But no, he saw, looking at the large hand that coiled lightly against bloodied fabric just above the space where a belly button would be.

Naruto swallowed. He shot him.

He dropped his gun.

Oh my God.

Gaara was staring down at his wound expressionlessly. He seemed to press into it, before he pulled his fingers away and looked back up at Naruto.

"You missed." He said simply.

And then he was moving forwards—gliding forwards, with speed and slowness was that was only possible in dreams-

All Naruto knew was that for a moment he couldn't move, and that for the next moment he _could_ move—and it was too run away, with a desperate scream on his tongue. He turned and ran but four steps before a hand clasped him on the shoulder, turned him around and slammed him viciously into the wall.

Naruto gasped as his breath was knocked out of his system. He almost fell to the floor, but one strong arm held him up, while the other was flat against the wall beside his face.

Naruto groaned helplessly, when a sharp pain emitted from the back of his head, but when he opened his eyes, the pain might as well have been distant memory.

Gaara was _close_.

Inches, mere inches, away from his face.

And he _hovered_.

He trapped Naruto's smaller build against the wall and stood there, watching him.

With those eyes.

Naruto stared back, his breaths coming in an out of his mouth sharply, and onto Gaara's face.

But he didn't seem to mind. Instead he shifted closer, until their noses were almost touching, and tilted his head.

"You still don't remember me." he murmured. And it was a statement, not a question.

"R-remember?" and Naruto's voice came out cracked, broken, and horse as if he was swallowing glass as he spoke.

Gaara moved his face again, this time so that his lips were parallel to the sweaty mop of blonde hair atop his head. "I was…younger then…" he murmured, again.

And Naruto felt another shiver strike up his spine, this time crawling up somewhere behind his ear. Gaara was so close, so _close_—not touching, but _close_. As if his outline was flushing against Naruto's outline.

"I was…smaller than you were. Weaker. But you did not wish to take advantage of me…"

Naruto felt confusion rise in him, overtaking the fear. What was he _talking_ about?

"We were both broken even then." The man continued in the same murmur, and the hand he had on Naruto's shoulder hitched a few inches downward. "But you understood."

Naruto turned his head to the side, his breath catching.

"Understood that there was unhappiness…misery…suffering, in every room, every corner. That no place on this wretched earth has been spared the spectrum of that inevitability."

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The redhead was moving closer, flushing his body against his until he could feel his heat. "What inevitability?" he forced himself to ground out, and he wouldn't be surprised if his teeth were bleeding he was clenching them so tightly.

"The only thing each and every human being has in common." was the answer. And Naruto wanted to become one with the wall when the man moved closer. Gaara used his other hand then, to pass through his hair.

He shook his head violently, so the hand would get off of him, and tried to glare in the man's direction. Alas, when faced with those expressionless eyes, he wasn't so sure he pulled it off. "_Don't touch me_." he managed to say.

"Death." the man said, ignoring the blonde. "The common thing."

Naruto bit the inside of his lips for a moment. What was with everyone's obsession with death and the inevitability of it? "That's not true." He said, his voice still ugly and trembling. "Everyone is also born." He continued. "Life is something we all have in common. Living."

"...life?" Gaara paused and looked to the side. When he turned to look back at Naruto, it was with a dull shake of his head. "No. We do not have that in common."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. And he tried to shift to the side, but found the taller man's other arm there, trapping him. "Are you dead?" And he hated the way his voice sounded like a high pitched and pathetic thing.

The quirk of his lips appeared on Gaara's lips again. The non-smile, that looked so strange. "I stopped living a long time ago. I am a corpse-shell now, a cheap and dying replica—"

"You're crazy." Naruto whispered heatedly, glaring up at the man. He was gaining a bit of his confidence back, but not enough to make the trembling in his voice, and the tremors running along his body to go away. If Gaara wanted to kill him, he would have done it already, wouldn't he?

"No," Gaara said lightly, halfheartedly chastising. "Don't be like them. The insanity claim is a cop out. I know what I'm doing."

"Then _why are you doing this!_" Naruto screamed into the man's face. "Why are you killing all these people, why are you making them suffer—why are you making _me_ suffer? I did _nothing_ to deserve this—_Kiba_ did nothing to deserv—"

"Shhh…" Gaara sounded quietly, effectively shutting the blonde up. "Suffering," he started lowly. "is a part of life. And I promise," he added, bringing his face even closer to the blonde. "When this is over, you won't suffer anymore."

Naruto looked at him with wide, betrayed eyes. "You can't be serious." He said. "You've made me go through more suffering than I've ever known—!"

"But I told you what you had to do," Gaara said lightly, finally moving a bit backwards, so he could look at the blonde fully. "I told you to kill her. Or she would kill you."

Naruto looked at the redhead in disbelief. "But she _didn't_ kill me, you fucking idiot!" he screamed. "She killed _Kiba_! And he had _nothing_ to do with it! He was innocent and did _nothing wrong_—"

"Shhh…" The man sounded again, closing his eyes and what looked like calm exasperation. When he opened those eyes, he moved closer, looked deeply into Naruto's. "Tell me, that you are the same person you were before you watched him die." He murmured. "You're not." He said simply, not waiting for his reply. "You died, Naruto. And was reborn again. Into this."

Naruto looked at the man with disbelieving eyes. "_What_?"

"You are a man of vengeance now." He clarified. "Revenge. The man you were before…would not have been able to shoot the gun."

"And how the _fuck_ did you know I wouldn't die!" he shouted, incredulous. "How do you know _anything_? How do you predict things the way you do?"

The man raised his shoulders once, and Naruto recognized the gesture as a shrug. "Why should that matter?"

Naruto wanted to spit in the man's face. "_Fuck_ you." He said. "Why should that _matter_? You're playing with people's lives! You're murdering innocents! What in God's name gives you the _right_ to do these things!"

"God?" Gaara frowned lightly. "That being abandoned us long ago. Immersed himself in the idea of perfection while simultaneously forging the law of imperfection in every human body and soul."

Naruto made a sound of desperate exasperation. "You're not making any _sense_." He said.

"Sense, sensible, sensibility, sensory, sensing... " the man murmured, and he moved forwards again, once again flushing himself against Naruto's body. Naruto took a sharp intake of breath, when he felt something warm and wet seep into the shirt he'd worn. When he looked down he saw blood from Gaara's wound, seeping out and staining both of their shirts.

"You…" he said, hesitating. "Need to go to a hospital." he breathed out. He was ashamed of himself later for saying so. Gaara did not deserve the hospital. He should be left here to bleed to death.

"I was wrong..." The red head muttered, and his hold tightened on Naruto's upper arm. "You did not die. The need for vengeance is fleeting. Your old self peeks. Perhaps your friend is not dead after all..."

Naruto felt a pang at his chest so strong and sharp that he couldn't hold it back anymore. He spat in Gaara's face.

The spit went underneath his eye, and trailed down until it reached his chin. He did nothing about it.

"They told me there was nothing they could do—that he _wasn't going to make it_—"

"And then you ran out of the hospital, and never went back." The man murmured. He looked strange, with the spit trailing down his face. "You have not seen anyone since that day. You've locked yourself in your apartment, contemplating vengeance, then slept outside the two previous nights in fear that your friends would come looking for you."

Naruto looked at him shaking his head. "How do you know these things!" he shouted, frustrated.

"Because I watch you." The man said, plainly.

The blonde moved roughly against the man's hold suddenly. But the redhead pressed forwards and held him there with his body.

"I've watched you from the beginning." He continued. "I've been in your home. I've watched you sleep, I've watched you bathe, I've watched you touch yourself—"

Naruto shook again, and this time put his arms into play, trying to move out and under the redhead, but Gaara held him still, with his own body, flushed against his.

"I can see why, now," the man said, moving to speak to the crook of his neck. "I can see why it has to be you."

Naruto growled and tried to escape again, but stopped immediately when he felt a knee hold itself between his legs. He gasped through his teeth, and held very, very still.

"The way you look at me..." the man muttered into his neck. "That fear, and yet—there is a defiance. A power. You will find a way." The hand he had on Naruto's arm moved lower, until he held the blonde's wrist. Naruto swallowed with difficulty as Gaara's hand moved from there to the spot above his hipbone.

"I already see my demise," Gaara continued, in that same deep mumur, choosing to barely move his lips as he spoke, "and you are its outline. But do not be mistaken," he added, pushing his knee further into Naruto's crotch. The blonde hissed and made a move to turn away, but only succeeded in adding _friction_—

"I will fight death until the very end." Gaara continued. "And many will suffer, before I let you destroy me. But the inevitability of that destruction," Naruto felt the man shudder against him and move forwards until his lips touched his neck. Naruto had to hold his breath then, because he could feel the vibrations of the man's voice as he spoke. "is _glorious_. Is this fear, I wonder? Its been so long since I've felt it ... But the idea of my own death..." he paused, and moved against Naruto in a way that seemed experimental.

Naruto opened his mouth in a silent cry, when Gaara's body moved against a strain in his pants he didn't want to admit was there.

"But now that I've accepted it." The redhead continued. "I will take on the challenge, and I will fall fighting until I inevitably fall into the hands of my maker's enemy."

There was a long silence after that, with Naruto breathing harshly, and his cheeks red. When he found his voice, it was to whisper, "You _want_ me to kill you?"

"It is inevitable," Gaara replied, in the same murmur. He seemed to have found something fascinating in the crook of Naruto's neck, because he stayed there. The blonde cringed and tried to pull away again, but it was futile.

He could do nothing to escape, even when something wet and hot suddenly trailed a solid line from the base of his neck to the back of his earlobe. He couldn't hold in the pathetic mewl of fear that left his mouth through clenched teeth, nor could he help the way his knees buckled when the man moved against him again.

"S…_stop_." He pleaded, and it was a desperate whisper, because he didn't understand what was going on, and he felt like he would vomit any moment, and that this heat would suffocate him, and at any moment he would collapse in fear—

And just like that, the heat that'd flushed against his body was gone.

And Gaara stood before him. Still. Expressionless.

"Favor me your tongue," he said, looking at the blonde with those eyes. "And I shall not speak against the sun."

Naruto hesitated. Those words were in the letter. "I don't _unders_—"

_Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee_—

The familiar sound of sirens sounded outside of the alley and Naruto's breath hitched. The police were here? Who called them? He looked back at Gaara, who was looking in the direction of the sirens, with the same listless eyes.

"Alas," he murmured, taking a step back into the shadows.

Naruto panicked, and moved forwards. "W-wait! You can't—I won't let you go!" he said. "I'll bring you to prison if it's the last thing I do!"

The man walked backwards towards the end of the alley, watching Naruto the entire way. Naruto stood there, frozen on the spot, staring incredulously. The sirens were coming closer, and his chance to capture Gaara was right there, right in front him, the opportunity slipping away second, by _second_—

His eyes landed on the gun he'd dropped on the floor earlier, and he ran to it. He picked it up and held it to Gaara's body, which was still walking backwards, half of it already engulfed in the shadows. "Don't move!" he screamed. "_Or I'll shoot!"_

Gaara gave him another one of those non-smiles, as his face completely disappeared behind the shadows, vanishing.

Naruto paused, his heart racing, his face red—

Then he shot relentlessly into the shadows, screaming as he did, reveling in the incredibly piercing noise that reverberated against the walls with each shot.

Later, he had to explain to the police why he'd been shooting manically into thin air.

* * *

**End of Chapter(s)**

**22, 600 words!**

It's 4:00am and oh my god, oh my god, oh my god guys you have no idea how difficult it was to write those two chapters.

I'm so sorry I made promises I couldn't keep, and I really hope that the way I introduced Gaara is to your liking. I feel like it could have gone better, but C'est la vie.

Happy Belated Birthday to:

**Wanted Heylyn / **July 12th

**Kusahime/** July 14th

**"Guest"/** July 13th

**Evan Sabaku/** July 14th

Consider this chapter my (very) belated gift to you guys. And I really hope that all of you enjoyed reading,

Until next time.


	14. The Traitor in Your Midsts

**Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

Chapter Fourteen: _The Traitor in Your Midst_

[_Beta'd by _AkizukiSakura]

* * *

There had been an interception.

The police had come rushing into the alley with their guns raised, shouting at him to put his weapon down and get on the ground with everything spread. He'd done so, the defiance in him subsiding, and they had pulled him roughly away from the alley and into a screeching police car.

More than one police vehicle had come, from what Naruto could see, but he'd been too out of it to count. Men in uniform had gathered around the one he was in, talking into their communicators and looking around as if they expected more than one person to have been involved in whatever Naruto was being arrested for. They'd done that for almost thirty minutes before every cop seemed to get into their respective vehicles, and had begun driving to what Naruto thought was going to be a precinct or a jail.

They'd driven no more than ten minutes when the interception happened. He was taken roughly out of the black and white stripped police car and into a plain, dark vehicle – he couldn't tell the exact color in the night – and was driven somewhere.

He didn't ask questions. He knew these people wouldn't give him any answers. The only person he wanted to ask questions to was gone. Again. Escaped within the night. He _was_ the night, really. A part of it, an extension of it, if the way he disappeared was any indication.

The way he disappeared.

Naruto brought his hands to his face. Disappeared. Just like that.

The blonde knew he was missing something. Had the redhead somehow found a way behind him…? Or was he really as supernatural as Naruto's heart feared him to be, and somehow materialized into the darkness or into the walls? Or maybe…?

Maybe he hadn't been there in the first place. Maybe it had all been a part of Naruto's imagination.

Naruto snarled into his own hands. No. _No_. He would never take that as an explanation. His _imagination?_ Impossible. It was Gaara he'd spoken to tonight. It had been him breathing into his face and moving against his body.

Naruto let out a shaky breath, and kept his face in his hands.

_Moving against his body_.

He still didn't know how to feel about that. There was something in him that screamed an infantile _fucking weird_, but the smarter part of him realized the fear he was supposed to feel. The danger he was in …

The blonde shivered.

_Moving against his body._

Naruto hit his head with a frustrated fist. What did Gaara _want_? And the thing's he'd said…about knowing him before, and about Naruto being _the one_. None of it made any _sense_.

With his eyes closed Naruto could still feel the way the redhead's body had flushed against his, with his shallow breaths on his neck.

He rubbed his neck with hot palms and, when that wasn't enough, he started using his nails, scratching and scratching until—

The car door on his side opened, and rough hands pulled him outside. The person spun him around, so he couldn't get a good look at his face, and pushed him forwards until he was walking up the stairs of—

Naruto blinked. The Hatake Police Department? He didn't know why he was surprised. It was the largest police station in the area so it would be natural for him to be somehow brought back here. The past few days made him want to attribute the turn of events to fate, but he didn't really have time to think about it before he was shoved through the doors of the department.

There was a commotion with policemen he didn't know looking at him with wide-eyes and standing up from their chairs.

"Tell me where Masashi is," the man who held him growled.

"Is that…the kid?" someone asked. He looked younger than the others, and he looked at Naruto like he wanted to run away.

"_Where_ is Masashi?" the man asked again, slowly. He tightened his hold on Naruto's already cuffed hands, and the blonde had to wince. "Take me to him."

"Ah," said a voice to their left. Someone Naruto vaguely remembered seeing around came up to them. Obito, he thought his name was. "Chief. What brings you to the Hatake Police Department?" he asked pleasantly, but Naruto saw the way he had his fists clenched to his sides. Out of nervousness or fear, Naruto couldn't tell.

"Boy," the man started gravely, "If you don't take me to him—"

"All right, all right," said Obito, raising his hands in surrender. He waved his hand towards them and began to walk away. "Just follow me."

The man behind Naruto pushed him forwards and followed Obito to a very familiar room. The dark haired policeman opened the door and stepped inside while Naruto was shoved in by the one behind him.

Hands shoved him into a hard chair in front a long metallic table, and Naruto got a good look of the officer who'd done so. It was someone he'd never seen before, with a bald head and hard eyes. He stood by the door with his arms crossed and sent a glare in Naruto's direction. He stepped outside when Obito did and slammed the door behind him.

And then Naruto was alone, again. He banged his head against the table in front of him, his mind flashing back to the last time he'd done that. He'd been crying over Ino that time, because of what Gaara…or Sasori—

Naruto growled and leaned angrily back into his chair. And there was another mystery. Where the hell did Sasori _fit_ into all of this? Why did he blow up Kakashi's building, why did he kill Ino, why was Sasuke's head—

The blonde stopped, biting his lips, and shutting his eyes to keep the tears from coming. He wasn't mourning for Sasuke, not really but, every time he remembered the look on the policeman's swollen blue face as he rolled on the floor, the image of Seichi popped up in his mind. Crying and screaming for his father.

A father who would protect him from nothing now – because he was _dead_. Head rolling somewhere else, or frozen in some freezer for investigation or whatever perverted things the police wanted to use him for.

Naruto ground his teeth together hard enough for him to have to stop from the pain.

_The police._ He didn't want to work with them…but he knew it would take everything they had to take Gaara down.

Naruto heard something in his head laugh. Look at him: acting as if this was his mission alone and that _he_ was the one who needed back up. This was the police's job and he was the one thwarting _their_ plans and getting in the way of everything – right?

Naruto clenched the fists behind his back.

_I can see why it has to be you._

Gaara's voice rang in his head and he had to force down the tremble that wanted to flow through him by gritting his teeth.

_Why does it have to be me?_ He asked himself desperately. Of course he wanted nothing more at the moment than to shove a pickaxe through the redhead's skull, but why did _he_ have to be the one to do it? How did Gaara know that it had to be him?

_I watch you__… __I've watched you from the beginning._

And there was the shiver again that Naruto had to fight to contain.

Damn it, nothing made any _sense_. And he was sounding like a broken record now. He still had a fuzzy haze of anger hanging over his eyes but it was nowhere near as gut wrenching as the hate he'd felt the day Kiba…

Naruto closed his eyes.

_Perhaps your friend is not dead after all__…_

He really needed to get the man out of his head if he was going to stay sane enough to catch him.

Sane. Sanity. Gaara was insane. Maybe it would take someone in the same mental condition to take him down. Naruto mulled over that thought for a moment, frowning. He didn't want to turn insane just to hurt another person. But the way he was headed…

He'd taken a gun to an alley, hoping that a murderer would show up, so he could shoot him between the eyes. And he'd never shot a gun before. Naruto had practically walked into this arrest, he realized. He'd shot a gun in middle of the night, hoping to _hit_ someone else. Why had he been so surprised when the police came? Naruto shook his head. He knew why: he'd been so angry. He'd never felt anger like that before. Even when his mother abandoned him he never felt this…this _thing_ that ate him like a living thing. It was almost enough to overcome the fear that had begun to swallow him from the bottom up.

Almost.

And that was the problem wasn't it? Naruto was _scared_. He'd never been so scared – and that fear and anger made him act irrationally. Yeah, that was it. He wasn't crazy; his emotions were taking a hold of him, and—

The door to the room opened. When Naruto looked up, the bald one that had pushed him into the building was there, with his arms crossed and his eyes even harder than before. A familiar pointy head of hair followed him along with Kakashi's father and finally Obito.

Naruto stiffened apprehensively in his chair.

This was easily the angriest group of people he'd ever that the displeasure of facing.

Masashi was the one who started first. "Are you out of your mind?!" he shouted, coming forwards and banging his hand flat on the table.

Naruto jumped and leaned back in his chair until his back hurt.

"Do you have any _idea_ how many men I've sent out to snuff you out? And where do we find you? In some _alley_ by some—"

"Make no mistake," said the low and even voice of the bald man who'd taken Naruto in. "It was _my_ men who found the boy. Not yours."

Masashi did a complicated movement with his hands, as if he wanted to launch something at the bald man, but realized he had nothing to throw at him at the last second. "Stay out of this, Ibiki," Masashi growled. "You were well out of your jurisdiction when you found him. Whose to say you weren't keeping him captive yourself?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak. "So we're back here again," he said bitterly, looking up at them with what he knew were defiant eyes.

Shikamaru's eyes seemed to soften and he looked away from Naruto with a pitying shake of his head. "You look horrible, Naruto," he started. "And you've been missing for three days. Did you know that?"

The blonde blinked. "Yeah, I know that…" he responded carefully. "How could I not?"

"We thought you'd been kidnapped." Shikamaru replied.

"_Kidnapped?_" Naruto didn't understand. What could give them such an extreme idea? All he'd done was run away. Then again he shouldn't have been surprised. This whole lot of policemen were extremists as far as he was concerned.

"Where _were_ you then?" Masashi asked, the heat still in his voice. "We checked your apartment every day, we asked people if they saw you, we followed the damn signs—"

"I was in my apartment," Naruto said, cutting him off, "on the first day. After Kiba…" he paused, and tried to get his bearings. "I was in my apartment for a while…then I slept outside. In the park." It was embarrassing to say these things, Naruto realized, his cheeks reddening. He had been really out of it the past few days hadn't he?

"You were in your apartment?" Obito asked, and Naruto turned to look at his position in the corner. "What did you do there?"

Naruto winced. Why were they even asking? They'd snooped around in there so they bore witness to everything. "I trashed the place," he said finally. He didn't add _but you know this already_, because of the look on everyone's face.

They were silent for very long moments.

It was Shikamaru who broke it. "Naruto," he started slowly, "someone's been covering your tracks."

Naruto paused. "What?" What did that even mean?

Shikamaru shut his eyes and shook his head. "We sent officers to look for you the day after the incident. Masashi's orders," he added, inclining his head towards the chief. "I told him to send at least one man out for you as soon as you left the hospital, but he insisted you weren't important enough to—"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Masashi growled at the detective.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Just in case Naruto wants to know where we went wrong," he replied simply. "Anyway," he continued, "when the men went to your apartment…" he paused and looked at Obito.

Obito nodded his head and walked forwards. "I was one of the people sent," he started, looking at Naruto with serious eyes, "and the apartment was spotless. As if no had been there in several days. We thought you'd done spring cleaning or something along –"

"Wait – _what_?" Naruto asked, eyes widening. "That's…impossible. I…" The moment when he'd flung all the things in his cabinets onto the floor flashed through his mind. He didn't have _much_ in the tiny living space, but he'd made sure to thoroughly trash the place before he left.

"Then we tried looking for you in other places," Obito continued, "and there had been…clues." He hesitated on the last word, and Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Clues?" he asked. "Like… I left a trail behind or something?" Naruto honestly wouldn't have been surprised if he did. He wasn't so sure how tracking someone down went, but he hadn't exactly been _careful_ in his angry pursuit of revenge.

Obito hesitated. "_You_ didn't leave the trail," he started slowly. "We've recently found that it was someone else. Someone trying to lead us away from you."

Naruto opened his mouth and left it open, no words emerging from his lips. When he finally found his voice, it was to demand, "What clues? Where did they lead you to?"

The dark haired man looked to Shikamaru first, as if searching for approval. Naruto did not know what he saw in the detective's face but it made him turn back to Naruto and say, "We tracked your cellphone, Naruto. The first time you were interrogated. Your credit card was also tracked, but that was done after you'd—"

"You tracked my _phone_?" Naruto asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "And my credit card? How did you even –?!"

"The point is," Obito said, cutting him off with a raised hand, "that there was activity on both of them and we used them to track you down."

"That's impossible," the blonde said immediately. "I didn't have my cellphone with me. I left it at the hotel and I haven't used – "

"Did you leave your wallet at the hotel too?"

"N…no?" Naruto had to think about that one. He knew he left his cellphone at work because employees were required to leave their phones at the front desk so they weren't distracted at work. As for his wallet… It should have been in his pocket, but he definitely didn't have it now. When did he lose it?

"Naruto, we have records of someone using your phone on the other side of town." Obito said seriously. "There was activity from your credit card in Grove Hollow and then your card purchased something from a store not far from Circle Park."

Naruto was shaking his head very slowly, disbelieving. "I wasn't in any of those places…" he said softly. "I never really left my neighborhood. I went to the alley next to Kakashi's building every night and I was usually in the park … How could someone have…?"

"Cellphones and credit cards are stolen all the time." And that was the bald man, Ibiki speaking. "Your branch went on a wild goose chase because you didn't consider –"

"It's not just that," Obito said, looking at the bald man with slight irritation. "Every place we checked out, we described Naruto and asked if someone like him had come by. Each time the people said yes."

Naruto clenched the hands that were in cuffs behind his back. _What?_

"But today," Obito continued gravely, "your card was tracked in Calnestrode Southern-sect Airport."

Naruto stared at the raven-haired man. "Calnestrode?" he whispered, disbelieving. "That's on the other side of the continent!" What was the person using the card doing?

Obito nodded and looked back at the others. "We weren't so sure we should believe it, and there was no way we could just up and send men to check. But after a while there were more notifications of the card being used. There was a purchase on Seldsom Avenue, and another at Alledetin Ginj Drive. We knew the card was really being used in Southern-sect then, because the towns it was being used in all had strange names." He looked back to Naruto then. "We had given up on following you," he said. "We thought you'd fled or been taken somewhere against your will. We needed back-up. But it was Shikamaru's idea to check the receipts we'd collected from the stores you'd supposedly visited in Mushroom City. So we checked the receipts from the stores we'd tracked your visits in, and we…we found something."

Naruto stared at Obito when he didn't continue right away. "_Well?_" he asked, and it was his apprehension that stopped him from screaming in impatience.

Obito exhaled lightly, and took something from the inside pocket of his police vest. It looked like several short pieces of paper. He walked up the table and spread the tiny papers in front of Naruto. He moved in behind the blonde and pointed to each one. "These are the copies of the receipts we took from every place your credit card cashed in."

Naruto was about to ask how they knew it was the right receipt, when he saw the information on the top:

_Uzumaki Naruto_

_Card ending in -9039_

He let his eyes widen. This really _was_ his card—

"Look at the items bought." Obito said, pointing to the first receipt.

Naruto did, squinting to see the small words.

_.67 Gummy Bears _

_2.65 Angel Cookies _

_.83 Altoid Cinnamon _

_.16 Ramen Cupz~_

_.6 1x* Apple Red_

Naruto paused, staring at the list. "Gummies, cookies, cinnamon Altoids, ramen, and an apple." he said. Those were most random things he'd ever seen together.

"Look at the next one." Obito said, almost urgently.

Naruto turned to it, expecting something more promising from the new list.

_4.39 Graham CRACKERS_

_2.93 2x* Avocado_

_.45 Raisin Sun-MAID_

_.17 Aspirin 2-Pack_

Naruto raised both eyebrows. _And?_ he wanted to ask. Was he supposed to be glad whoever it was that stole his credit card wasn't buying expensive things? He didn't get it.

"What are we wasting our time with here?" growled Ibiki.

"The next receipt, Naruto." Obito said, ignoring the bald man completely.

Naruto looked at the third one warily. He didn't have time for these guessing games. He just wanted to be told what was going on already.

_3.21 Grape 2* Ounces_

_.76 Almond-JOY Bar Coco/DarkCh_

_.53 Asparagus /1/ Ounce_

_5.84 Rubber-MAG TrojanEcs 10"^_

_.42 Anchovies Unsalted Augostinchi_

"Do you see it?" Obito asked. "Grape, almond, asparagus, rubber, and anchovies. Do you see it?"

The only thing Naruto _saw_, was that that someone had the gall to buy anchovies and _condoms_ on his credit card.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't know what you're trying to show me."

The dark haired man sighed and shook his head. "It's fine. It took us a moment too. But look at the first letter of everything purchased."

"The letters?"

Obito nodded. "Yes."

Wearily, Naruto went to the last receipt.

G..A..A

Naruto stopped, his eyes going wide. He didn't even have to read on.

_Gaara_.

He made a choking noise, and looked back to the first receipt. Gummy, angel, Altoid, ramen, apple – _Gaara_. The second receipt: graham, avocado, avocado, raisin, aspirin – _Gaara_.

"You…you mean to tell me…" he whispered, his voice shaking,

"Kaze was covering your tracks," Shikamaru said, speaking up. "He didn't want us to find you."

"But—"

"What the hell would Sabaku want to do that for?" Masashi asked, coming forewords.

"We don't know yet," started Shikamaru, who was crossing his arms. "It's going to—"

"We're wasting _time_ here. All of this is juvenile. Receipts with the murderers name? Give me a break with this child's play and let's get back to business." Ibiki said from his spot in the room. He uncrossed his arms and pointed at Naruto with an accusing finger. "This boy," he said boy like it cut his tongue, "shot rounds of a pistol into the night barely an hour ago. My team caught the frequencies that radioed in for multiple complaints for disturbance of the peace."

Shikamaru turned to Naruto in disbelief. "Naruto, that was you?" he asked.

The blonde frowned hard, but it was only to mask his shame. He regretted being so reckless. He couldn't be sorry for his anger, because he had the _right_ to be angry, but putting himself in a position where he could hurt or disturb innocents was unacceptable. "Yeah," he said simply. "That was me."

Shikamaru looked like he didn't know what to do with that information.

It was Masashi who spoke, turning to look at Ibiki. "I thought you came here to rub in my face that you've found one of my department's missing persons…" he said lowly.

Ibiki looked at Masashi like he was scum. "Not everything is a _competition,_" he spat. "Your sect was closer than mine, so I brought him here. Our job is to capture and hold criminals," he continued. "It's not a contest, like you've made this Sabaku fellow out to be."

Naruto, at that moment, decided that despite the permanent evil eye, he liked the bald man. He spoke sense.

Masashi looked like he was about to say something, but Shikamaru interrupted. "He's right, chief. We aren't doing our job right now. Where were our men when the complaints radioed in?"

No one answered him and he sighed. "Right. Well then." He turned to the blonde. "You should be in a cell, Naruto. We should have taken all your things, searched you, and put you in a _cell_." He talked like he was chastising himself. "But instead we're here."

"I knew I couldn't trust a criminal in this department," Ibiki said lowly. "That's why I stayed. I recognized the boy. He was in the mix-up at the hotel. I thought an interrogation would be underway, to know what really happened there. I see I was wrong."

"We already know what happened there." Masashi said, still sounding like an irritated child. "We have better questions to ask – and then we could lock him up."

"You know what happened there? And why doesn't my team know what happened?" Ibiki asked. "Why doesn't Gai's team know? Why doesn't Kurenai's team know? Why doesn't—"

"Because we handled it ourselves," hissed the grey haired chief. "Why do we need to involve others when we already handled it on our ow—"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ibiki spat back, shoving passed Shikamaru to get into Masashi's face. "You've always been this way: adamant in your poor judgment! Don't you understand that innocent lives—"

"Enough, the both of you," said Shikamaru, trying to get in between them.

Naruto watched the scene with wide eyes, wondering how the hell anyone was going to catch Gaara if the police themselves were fighting with each other.

Shikamaru and Obito managed to pull the two of them apart and to either side of the room.

"We have to get down to business," Shikamaru said, irritation thick in his voice. "Naruto," he said, turning back to the blonde. "We need to take your things, we need to run finger prints – everything."

"Do we really have time for this?" Masashi asked in disbelief.

"Are you asking if there's time to run _mandatory_ procedure?" Ibiki asked incredulously from his corner.

Obito ignored them both and stepped right beside Naruto. "Get up," he said, suddenly sounding professional. "Come with me to the front so we can put this on record—"

"And the gun," Shikamaru added. "Where is it?"

"It's with me now," Ibiki said, opening and then closing his vest.

Shikamaru nodded and inclined his head towards the door. "All right then. Get Naruto ready for a proper interrogation then."

Obito took the blonde by the shoulder – not roughly, but enough to surprise Naruto with his strength – pulled him up from the chair, and pulled him out the door.

Naruto was taken to another part of the building he was familiar with. A few policemen looked at him as he was dragged to a familiar area – like the turnstiles before a train station or an airport. Like the last time he'd been suspected of something, they took his picture, inked his thumb, and asked him questions about himself, all of which he replied to easily. There was a big difference between this moment, and the last time he'd been taken into the Hatake department as a prisoner. This time, he was very much the culprit of the crime. That and the fact that they were asking him to take off his clothes.

"Excuse me?"

"Clothes," a new man said, holding his hand out. Obito was standing by with his arms crossed, waiting for Naruto.

"Uhm…why?" the blonde asked, but he bent down to unbutton his shirt anyway. He mentally answered his question. They were going to give him an orange jump suit and throw him in cell—

"Searching."

Huh. A one word gentleman.

He wondered what was going to happen to him. "Everything?" he asked warily, when he was pulling at the waistband of his jeans.

"Forget that," Obito called out, coming forwards. He sounded impatient. "just pat him down. He's not exactly someone we can lock up just yet." He looked at Naruto with suspicious eyes when he said that, though.

Naruto stared back, wondering if he saw resentment in the gaze. Was the raven-haired policeman realizing how corrupt the force was now that he realized some people were treated more special than others?

He was almost knocked down by the force of the policeman's patting down, slapping all the areas of his body like Naruto had mosquitoes all over him.

"He's good," the man said gruffly and he stepped back to look at Obito for further instruction.

The man nodded back, coming up behind Naruto. "Can I trust you enough not to cuff you again?" he asked in his ear.

Naruto turned back to him, confused. He was being given a choice? "I'm not going anywhere…" he said finally.

Obito hummed and pulled him by the upper arm back to where'd they come from. When they re-entered the interrogation room, Naruto found Neji there, with his arms crossed and talking heatedly to Chouji, who was red in the eyes. Both of them looked like they'd seen better days.

Neji glared when he saw him come in and looked like he was going to say something, but was interrupted when Shikamaru came forth from the other side of the room and gestured towards the chair he'd sat in before; only this time with Ibiki in a chair on the other side of the table, and if the way he glared at Naruto as he seated was any indication, Naruto knew he was going to face this man's wrath.

"All right, boy," the man started when Naruto faced him fully. "I was filled in on your little pact with the police, and the episode in the hotel, but know _this_," he said gravely. "No amount of _grief_ constitutes shooting random bullets in a place where anyone could have gotten hurt."

"I wasn't—"

"If you want to shoot bullets," the man continued, cutting Naruto off. "Get a damned license, go into the damned forest, and shoot your bullets there," he said. "Do you have any idea how many people could have gotten hurt—"

"I know that _now_," Naruto stressed, putting his hands on the table and coming forwards. "Before I was angry and upset, and I-I thought I could use the gun to kill Gaara…" he ended softly, realizing once again how stupid he'd been.

Shikamaru sighed, and shook his head. "Naruto, you can't let emotions pull you irrationally like that. Where did you even get the gun? You should leave things like that up to us – we can't have a civilian, no matter what your intentions are, walking around with an unlicensed pistol."

Naruto paused.

Oh.

Shit. He'd been so full of his thoughts, he forgot the he didn't tell these people exactly where he'd gotten the gun…and who he'd been shooting at. He folded his hands and narrowed his eyes at the table. He couldn't really get in more trouble, would he? Wait, scratch that – he could. But would it really make a difference? If he was going to jail for sure now, then what was the point of keeping secrets?

Besides. He couldn't keep secrets anymore if they were going to catch Gaara. They all had to work together, as hard as that was for Naruto to admit.

"I lied," he began carefully. "Before… When Kakashi and Iruka came by…and said that the letter was the only thing in the box…" he trailed off, and looked at Shikamaru expectantly.

He saw the exact moment when it clicked. "The gun," he whispered. "Gaara sent you the gun."

Naruto nodded, and someone spoke before he could.

"What is this?" said Neji, his voice rough. "First a letter, now a gun? That doesn't make—"

"It makes perfect sense," said Shikamaru, looking at Naruto with bright eyes. "Remember the note? Kill her before she kills you, it said. And the card – it said 'a gift'. The gun was a gift, and Gaara wanted Naruto to kill someone." His eyes softened. "I suppose that person was Sakura…" he said.

Naruto folded his hands a little tighter.

"We interrogated her, too." Shikamaru said. "And now we have the other side of the puzzle. Sakura received the exact same letter you did, Naruto. On different terms."

"I know," the blonde replied softly. "She started talking about getting letters too…saying that if she killed me – someone who would recognize her despite her disguise – then she would find Sasuke." His mouth clipped at Sasuke's name, and he bit the inside of his gums.

"She didn't kill you." Shikamaru said, slowly. "But she still got to see Sasuke. And she would have seen him anyway, because his head was in her room." he said.

Naruto paused, thinking carefully about his next words. "Gaara didn't…lie," he settled with. "I'm not the same person I was before she shot Kiba…or at least," he added, staring confused at the table, "I wasn't being myself. I think…I think I'm getting better now." Naruto nodded. Yes, he was getting better. His actions of before only seemed stupider and stupider in his head; how could he have let himself go wild and out like that?

"Strangely insightful…" Shikamaru said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow and suspicious eyes.

Naruto inhaled deeply. "It's because I wasn't the one who thought about it that way." He said softly. "Gaara was the one who told me so. In the alley."

Silence.

Naruto winced at it. Stating that Gaara had been the one he was shooting at should have probably been the first thing he said. He shook his head when he had that thought. No, he shouldn't have. They would have bombarded him with questions if he had done that and he wouldn't have gotten the information he'd gotten earlier. And they would argue that they could have run out and been on the lookout, but Naruto knew they wouldn't find him, no matter how long it had been since he'd seen the redhead.

"I'm sorry," said Chouji, laughing lightly. "It sounded like you said you saw Gaara in the alley."

Naruto turned to the man, nodding. "I did say that."

Chouji stared at him, looking lost for a moment. "Neji and I were called at the scene – we'd gotten there just after you were taken into a Morino police vehicle. There wasn't anyone else there."

Naruto opened his mouth and then closed it again. How was he supposed to explain that Gaara just disappeared? "I…I know it's weird. But these past few days, I waited in that alley for him to come. I…I knew he would be there—"

"_How_?" Neji asked, shaking his head.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't… I don't know. It was just a feeling," he replied lamely.

"We can't really trust your feelings, now can we?" Neji replied, scoffing.

"And it's impossible that you saw Gaara," Obito said, who was standing right in front of the door. "He's the one who's been covering your tracks, right? That means Kaze's in Southern-sect now."

Naruto widened his eyes at that, not because he believed Gaara was in Southern-sect, but because of how incredibly thorough the man was. He'd lead the police on a goose chase that would lead them to believe he was somewhere else, so when it came for Naruto to tell them that he'd seen him in person, it would be hard for them to believe. "Don't you see," he started urgently, "Gaara wants you to believe that I didn't see him. He's not in Southern-sect! He's—"

"If that's the case then where did he go?" Obito asked, coming forward. "You had the gun – why didn't you shoot him?"

"I _did_ shoot him," Naruto half-shouted, he checked himself before he shouted again. "In the stomach – o-or at least somewhere around there."

"And where is he now?" Asked Neji. "Why isn't he in that alley bleeding to death—"

"Because he took the bullet like it was _nothing_," Naruto hissed. "He came at me like I hadn't just shot him and he—"

_Moving against his body._

"H-he…he told me things," he finished simply.

Shikamaru looked at him like he didn't know what to do with the information. "Naruto…" he started slowly. "People don't just recover from a shot like that…"

"Well Gaara _did_," Naruto stressed. "I shot him! I was aiming for his forehead, but I missed, and he—"

"You're lying." said Ibiki, and Naruto had honestly forgotten he was in the room. "There were multiple gunshots. If Sabaku was there like you said, then there would have been a dead body—"

"No, that was _after_," Naruto said, leaning forward to look at him with pleading eyes. "I shot him, then he came at me, a-and I dropped my gun – but then he heard you guys coming, and he started moving away, and I shot at him again. And again," he added. "Until the gun had no more bullets."

Ibiki scowled at him. "There's no way that he could have escaped if you're telling the truth. My men came from every corner. We would have caught him running away."

"That's…" Naruto started wearily, "that's the thing. H-he didn't move out of the alley. He…he went back in. Into the shadows. And when I shot at him…there was nothing there."

When Naruto looked up he saw the pitying eyes of Shikamaru. "I think you were imagining things, Naruto."

"I did _not_!" Naruto seethed, standing up.

"Sit down, boy," said Ibiki. He stayed in his seat and glared up at the blonde.

Naruto hesitated, fists at his sides, before he took a seat. "Listen," he said slowly. "I thought about it, okay? I know it sounds crazy, but it really happened—"

"Have you had anything to drink at all?" Shikamaru asked quietly. "Alcohol in your system…?"

Naruto paused. "I…" _Shit_. He could lie. But they could easily test him to see if he was telling the truth. "I had a drink," he said finally. "But it had been so long ago!" he added quickly. "More than a hour before I went to the alley, at least," he said, putting his hands on the table again. "I wasn't… I wasn't drunk when I was there. And if I was – it was hardly enough for me to hallucinate."

"Naruto…" Shikamaru said, lightly. "You must know how this looks. Obito said Kaze was using your card in Southern-sect, and you admit to being intoxicated—"

"I was hardly buzzed by then," Naruto shouted, sitting up. "And so what if someone's using my card in another part of the continent?! It could have been stolen by anyone—"

"Someone who would think to buy things in Gaara's initial every time?" Obito spoke up, sounding sarcastic. "Highly unlikely."

"We all know that Gaara has people helping him," Naruto said, glaring at the raven-haired man. That sarcastic tone he used reminded him so much of Sasuke it hurt. "He's using someone to cover his tracks, while he covered mine—"

"But what reason would he have to cover your tracks?" Chouji asked from his corner. "What do you have to do with any of this Naruto?"

"I would ask the same question," said Ibiki. "I still don't believe you, but if you are telling the truth, tell me why we shouldn't just lock you up right now for having so much involvement in this man in the first place?"

Naruto stared at the bald man, reassessing the liking he'd had for him. "You're going to lock me up just because someone's after me?" he asked bitterly.

"_No_," Ibiki said, leaning forwards. "I'm going to arrest you because you shot an unlicensed gun, and then I'd keep you in custody if I found that you were so heavily connected to Sabaku so I could use you as bait to capture the poor bastard and finally be done with it. In fact," he said, looking behind to face the rest of the people. "If you people hadn't been so stingy, and kept the progress you had on the murderer's whereabouts, we would have captured him already."

"We apologized for that," started Shikamaru, "and there's—"

"_Wrong_," Ibiki spat, cutting him off. "_You_ apologized. Masashi continues to go about with the shield of ignorance stapled to his face—"

"The chief will come around," said Shikamaru, raising a tired hand. "What we need now is to figure out how to handle this." He gestured towards Naruto. "Listen, Naruto, there are so many reasons why we can't just…trust you on this. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand," Naruto said, trying to keep calm and failing at it, "but I'm begging you guys to believe me. I saw Gaara tonight – and remember the letter?" he added. "It said I would meet him. We were stupid to think that we could have captured him then, because we know he's a good planner—"

"If you hadn't run away from us," started Neji, sounding annoyed.

"That was a mistake," Naruto said. "But I think… I think Gaara knew I was going to do that…a-and he knew I was going to be in the alley too… Shikamaru," he pleaded, looking up at the detective, "you know what I'm talking, don't you? I feel like…you understand Gaara a little better than everyone else because you're a detective and you've been working on this so long…"

Shikamaru looked at the blonde for a long while before he sighed. "You're right," he said finally. "Gaara said he would meet you, and I wouldn't be surprised if he did. It's just…the circumstances…and you shot a _gun_, Naruto," Shikamaru said, disappoint thick in his voice. "How could you do that? It changes everything – now you're guilty of something, and you didn't tell us about the gun – why?"

Naruto put his head down, and he thought the feeling creeping up on him was shame. "I… I didn't trust you," he said. "I thought that you would somehow…disrupt what was…meant to be," he finished lamely. "I thought that…since Gaara had showed some kind of interest in me… I thought that I…" he trailed off, thinking back. He'd been so self-righteous. He'd been way over his head.

"Naruto…"Shikamaru said, "You can't be on your own when it comes to a guy like Kaze. He's not…"

Naruto nodded once, looking at the table, then he looked up and shook his head. "Wait," he said. "Do you believe me? It was Gaara in the alley I swear it was."

"Then how are you still alive?" Chouji asked, his voice low. "Everyone we knew who'd ever seen him in person…is dead."

Naruto clenched his fists on the table. "I… I thought he was going to kill me," he admitted. "But he…he said that…that I was the one." He looked up at the people in the room with solemn eyes. "He said that I would be the one to kill him."

And there was that silence again. Naruto made a small sound in the back of his throat, and turned his head when he heard a small rumbling from the side.

He blinked. Masashi. He's forgotten he was even in the room.

The gray haired man was laughing, a low and ugly laugh with his head down. "All right," he said slowly, shaking his head. "That's where I draw the line. I stayed quiet as long as I could Shikamaru, but _that_," he paused to chuckle again. "That statement should have the mocking it deserves." He pushed himself off of the wall and stalked over until he was on the left side of the metallic table. "_You're_ the one that's going to kill him? Get off of your power stool and face the facts. You're trying to become more to the case than you actually are."

"Chief," Shikamaru started, exasperated.

"Enough!" Masashi shouted, and the loud noise was so out of place in the mostly quiet room that Naruto jumped again. "I've had enough of this," he said, clenching his fists at his side. He looked around the room with an impressive glare. "You people think that just because some brat has a few letters sent to him—"

"Those letters are important to finding out Kaze's whereabouts," Shikamaru said slowly. "If Gaara really said this—"

"Which he didn't," said Obito from behind Shikamaru, "because Gaara's in southern-sect."

"He can't be there," Naruto said, standing up again, but one look from Ibiki and he was sitting back down, "because I saw him tonight."

Obito made an irritated noise. "How do you explain the message in the receipts?" he asked angrily.

"Maybe it meant that Gaara was involved," started Chouji quietly, "but doesn't mean that he was the one directly purchasing those items."

"He's right." said Ibiki, surprisingly. He turned to look at Obito. "I've been listening and you said every time you went to investigate the place at which the boy's credit card was used, you asked if someone like him came by."

Obito nodded warily.

"And every time someone said yes?"

"Yeah, they did."

"Then a blonde haired blue eyed decoy was used to make those purchases," Ibiki said finally.

"It could have always been a disguise." Neji countered. "He could have always buy a wig and contacts, and go around town—"

"If he did that, he did it in time to see me in that alley tonight," Naruto said, speaking over Neji when he tried to talk on anyway.

"Or maybe…" Shikamaru started slowly, with a hand on his chin. "Maybe it wasn't him at all using those credit cards. Why would Gaara go through such great lengths when he could simply pay someone to do it for him – someone who was already on their way to Southern-sect."

"What are you saying?"

"Think about it," Shikamaru said, "What reason would Gaara have to go to Southern-sect? Think about the hassle, the incredible security, and the amount of money. He would have a better shot at getting out of the continent from Northern-sect."

"Maybe he wanted to keep it realistic," said Chouji.

"That's the thing," Shikamaru replied. "Leaving the continent would be realistic, but Gaara going to Southern-sect? It wouldn't make any sense. I'm sure he would find a way past the border despite his identity, but the amount of time and effort he would have to put would be taxing, even for him. Now why would he do that, just so our policeman wouldn't get a hold of Naruto's tracks?

"I think," he continued, "that Gaara used someone to do his dirty work, like I said before. Someone with blonde hair and blue eyes who was going to Southern-sect anyway."

"You…" Obito started lightly, "you must be right." He shut his eyes. "You have to be right," he said again, looking up. "It would make more sense, and it would hold true to his style, if he did it that way."

Shikamaru nodded and looked at Naruto. "Now, as for you having seen Gaara in the alley way: I'm not sure if we should completely take your word for it, but I'm inclined to believe you Naruto. Howev—"

"Are you kidding me?" said Masashi from his corner, and this time he didn't scream. "You believe him?"

"Chief, you heard what I—"

"Why aren't you people asking yourselves what the hell this kid has to do with anything?!" he screamed, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto.

"That's what we've had on our minds all along, Chief," Shikamaru said, exasperated.

"Then listen to the voice in your head telling you how ridiculous this is!" he shouted. "This kid was nothing but a snitch before, and now he's somehow the _key_ to all of this?!"

Naruto turned to the gray haired man, incredulous; _snitch_? Was he talking about the time he was practically forced to tell them what he knew about Gaara's whereabouts?

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ibiki said, standing up. He was incredibly taller than Masashi, so he towered over the man. "Why are you acting like this?"

Masashi only glared up at the man, looking unfazed by his height, but only because the anger and tension had been in his face before he had to face the taller man.

Ibiki made a small sound at the back of his throat. "You're hiding something," he whispered. "You have always been a big-headed idiot, but now…there's something at stake here."

And Naruto saw it, he saw the way the shorter man's eyes widened, hesitating a bit, before he clenched his teeth. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm just speaking my mind, and I don't think—"

"You're actions show me you know exactly what I'm talking about," and Ibiki's voice had become almost hypnotic. "You expected something to happen a certain way, and it didn't, so now you're panicking."

"Che," was the sound Masashi made, and he backed away from Ibiki, the glare never leaving his face. "And now you've turned against me," he hissed. "You've all turned against me!" he screamed, waving a hand to encompass the entirety of the room.

Shikamaru took a step back, looking at his boss with wide eyes. "Chief…" he said slowly.

Masashi paused when he looked at Shikamaru, seeming lost for a moment, before he whipped his head away and turned to look at Naruto. The blonde had never seen anger come so quickly to someone's face. "You," he said, and he stalked to he side of the table and grabbed Naruto's collar before he could turn away.

The blonde saw Chouji and Neji moved forwards in great speed, then stop short.

"Chief!" and Naruto _thought_ that was Chouji, but sounds weren't coming right in his ears as Masashi shook him by the neck. He brought both of his hands up, and grabbed the wrists on his neck and _pulled_.

Then he was being pulled from backwards by a pair of hands, and someone ran in front while the hands on his neck tried to hold on with nails, scratching Naruto badly before ended up on the floor.

Cursing, and holding onto each side of his neck Naruto finally looked up. "What the hell is you problem?!" he shouted, looking at the hand he'd held his neck with. There was a bit of red on it where Masashi had scratched him.

Masashi, who was being held back by Chouji and Neji, pulled and tugged in their gasp. "We had everything under control until you came!" he screamed, and Naruto scrambled backwards on the floor to get away from him. "Everything went to shit when you came!" he shouted again, and Ibiki was looking at the man in shock, while Shikamaru just stood there with his arms crossed and his eyes sad as he watched the scene unfold. "Take your ass back to wherever you came from and—"

"What is wrong with you?!" and that was Naruto, getting his confidence back and realizing that he did not have to stay on the floor. He stood up warily and glared at the restrained chief. The blonde didn't understand what was going on. Was the man drunk?

"You're on his side!" the chief screamed. "You're working with Sabaku, I know you are – and you're leading him away from us – you're the reason why we haven't caught up to him yet –!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Naruto shouted back incredulously. As if he would work with the man who hurt his best friend. "I would never work with him – you're the one who's crazy! You—"

"Check him, check him!" and this time the gray haired man turned to look at the two men restraining him. "He's tapped with bugs so Gaara can hear everything we're saying. He's—"

"Naruto was tapped down before we came back into the interrogation room," said Obito, and it was almost a whisper. He was looking at his chief with wide eyes. "He didn't have anything on him."

"You didn't check hard enough!" the man spat. "For all we know Sabaku knows all of our plans, and we're sitting ducks in this shitho—"

"Plan?!" Naruto shouted back, and he didn't know where the anger came from, but it blew into him like a small hurricane. "What plan? None of you have any ideas what you're doing! And if anyone is making someone a sitting duck—"

"You shut your mouth, boy!"

"You shut up!" Naruto yelled, almost childishly. "I don't know what the hell made you his way, but I am not on Gaara's side; I'd never work with someone who killed my best friend!"

"Liar! You have wires in your pocket, with him listening in—"

"What the hell?!" Naruto screamed, putting his hands to his face. "Why are you like this? I have nothing on me," he shouted, shoving those hands into his pockets now, ready to pull them inside out. "Do you se—" Naruto paused. "…—huh…?" He took his left hand out of his left pocket, leaving it inside out, and pulled his right pocket with that left hand, as his right one pulled at something inside.

What?

Naruto stared at the folded piece of paper he found there.

He blinked. Had he taken a receipt with him from somewhere? Last time he'd had his hand in his pockets…it had been completely empty from spending all he had—which hadn't been very much—at a small bar not too far from his apartment building—

"Naruto, what is that?" and that was Shikamaru speaking from his left, his voice almost breathless.

"I…" Naruto took the paper out completely, and began to unfold it.

His hands tightened on the piece of paper when he'd finished, his eyes immediately to the small signature at the bottom of the note…

"It's a note," he started, and he surprised himself with how soft his voice was. "From Gaara."

_Silence_.

Naruto cringed in that silence. It left him with the thoughts of his mind as he looked at the words written in the smallest script—

"Read it, Naruto." Shikamaru said, and again his voice was light.

Naruto's eyes fluttered as he began to feel faint a bit. When had this note been put into his pocket? He had not once felt someone—

Naruto shivered.

Oh.

He must have put it in when…

_Moving against his body._

Naruto swallowed with difficulty.

"Read it, boy." _A_nd that was Ibiki's deep voice, wasn't it? Naruto thought as he looked at the note with unseeing eyes. He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling a little faint.

No, he did know. It was because he had also been doubting himself. It was because he hadn't been sure. Now he was.

He _had_ seen Gaara in the alley tonight.

Naruto stared at the letter trying, with great difficulty, to see the words and read them without the ill-timed bass of his rapidly beating heart.

"4:24 to 6:41," he started, his voice soft. Then his hands began to shake and his voice was suddenly lost as is eyes read the next line.

"4:24 to 6:41?" Obito asked, piercing the silence that Naruto started. "What is that?"

"They're times," Shikamaru replied and, even without looking at him, Naruto knew his eyes were wide. "What does the rest say Naruto?"

His eyes could see the words, but he couldn't say them.

"Read it, boy!" And that was Ibiki again, failing to hold his patience.

"A…" Naruto clenched his fists. "Autumn Estates," he said quietly. "Little Leaf Manor."

Again, he was met with silence.

"What is that?" and that was Chouji's voice, no longer strained with the effort of holding the chief back.

"The Autumn Estates?" Shikamaru asked softly.

"And the Manor?" Obito asked, coming forward. "Naruto, what does it mean?" There was exasperation in his voice.

The blonde stared at the paper in his hands. He'd stopped shaking by then, but he was clenching his teeth enough to hurt. He unsnapped his jaw with effort, and spoke. "It's… It's my grandparent's address," he said, and his voice was hoarse.

"Your…grandparents?" asked Chouji.

When Naruto looked up, everyone was staring at him. Masashi was opening and closing his mouth like he was having a battle with himself on the words to say.

"How…" Naruto started, his voice thick, "how does he know where they live?" His voice was a little higher then. "How did he—"

"Hold on," said Ibiki, looking at Naruto with narrowed eyes. "I'm not trying to fuel Hatake's suspicions, but how do we know you didn't put the note into your pocket yourself? How do we know this isn't some kind of trick?"

Naruto looked up at the man, with angry and desperate eyes. "How am I supposed to prove anything? You'll throw everything I say back at my face because of _you think I'm crazy_!" he shouted, and he was being too loud, he knew, but he didn't have time for this. Gaara had his grandparents!

"We know there's always the possibility," Shikamaru spoke up. "It's just a very delicate situation, you know that, Naruto. Everything just seems unbelievable—"

"Everything about Gaara is unbelievable," Naruto spat, turning to look at the detective. "You of all people should know that – and I know it's hard to believe all of this, but please – you _have_ to trust me! We have to figure this out so I know what Gaara's doing to my family!"

"I've already figured it out," said Shikamaru, crossing his arms. "It's simple. Not even really a puzzle."

Naruto paused. "What?"

Shikamaru looked at him for a while longer before shook his head. "What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not this note is some sort of scam…or if Gaara made it easy, so you could understand it, if you had to figure it out on your own."

"What does it mean?" Naruto asked, urgently, going over to the detective. "And how can this be a scam? You think I wrote this, put it in my pocket, and somehow found a convenient moment to show it to you guys?!" he shouted incredulously.

"See it from our point of view, Naruto," Shikamaru stressed, gesturing with his hands. "You're found in alley shooting at thin air, you confess to having something to drink, and now you're showing us a note that may or may not have been written by Kaze—"

"What are you saying then?" Naruto growled. "Are you going to do nothing about this, because you aren't sure? You're just gonna let my grandparents suffer at the hands of—"

"I'm trying not to make the same mistakes we made before," Shikamaru interrupted, raising his voice. "We've rushed into things any time we had the slightest inkling to where Kaze was. This is one of those moments where hasty decisions can—"

"This is different!" Naruto shouted. "This isn't about a suspect—people's lives are in danger!"

"The boy is right," Ibiki admitted. "There might be people in danger. Even if it's just a fluke, we have to follow through, because it's our job."

Shikamaru grumbled something under his breath before he ran a tired hand through his hair. "You're right. You're right," he said, closing his eyes. "It's just…if it is Gaara, it's more likely that he's pulling our chain – pulling us somewhere so we're further off track—"

"But if it's in Naruto's pocket, doesn't that mean Gaara just wants Naruto there? Maybe Gaara doesn't expect us to be there?"

The detective shook his head. "Think about it, Chouji. When has Gaara ever been unprepared for us? And if he knows Naruto so much, then he must know that there's no way that Naruto could get there on his own, or make it in time."

"Make it in time?" Naruto asked, standing in front of Shikamaru. "What do you mean make it in time?"

"The note," Shikamaru replied, looking at the letter in Naruto's hand. "It—" he paused and his eyes widened. "What?"

Naruto took a step back, confused as to why Shikamaru had stopped. "What is it?"

Shikamaru was looking at the note in Naruto's hand. "Turn the note around," he said. There's…"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru for another moment, before he did was his was told, flipping the note over.

He paused.

_Don't bring the traitor._

"What?"

"What, _what_?" asked Obito. "What does it say?"

Naruto repeated the line aloud, and watched the room shift around.

"What traitor?" asked Masashi.

Everyone turned to look at him.

He stared back, looking at every person, before he growled. "What? What traitor?"

"It would make sense," Shikamaru said slowly, looking at the chief as he was seeing him for the first time. "If you were the traitor he's talking about…"

"_What_?" but Masashi didn't even get the word out before Neji and Chouji's hold tightened on him until both his hands were behind his back. "Are you kidding me!?" he screamed, looking at Shikamaru with disbelief. "How am I a traitor?"

Shikamaru said nothing at first, only looked at Masashi. He narrowed his eyes at him. "You've been acting strange lately," he said. "And like Ibiki said earlier… You act like something was supposed to happen, but it didn't – what are you hiding, chief?"

Masashi looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his skull. "De…_Detective_…" he whispered. "It's…. It's you!" he said suddenly, pulling at the hold the two police had on him. "You're the traitor! You would never go against me like this!"

Shikamaru shut his eyes. "Damn it…" he said. When he looked up it was to look at Masashi with betrayed eyes. "You got a letter from Gaara," he whispered, sccusation a soft thing in his voice.

Masashi's eyes widened and he took a step back. "Detective – _Shikamaru_ – you know everything about me! How could you even—"

"I should have known…" Shikamaru said, taking a step back. "It all makes sense now… The way you've been acting…the things you've said these past few days…"

The chief looked like his head was going to explode in his disbelief. "You…you bastard!" he shrieked. "You've been working with Sabaku all along, haven't you? Haven't you!?"

Shikamaru looked like he was going to fall over. "Damn it," he said again.

Naruto looked at the scene, trying hard not to scream 'What the hell is going on?!' But Shikamaru seemed to have realized something.

"We have to lock Masashi up for a while," he said, lifting his head up and taking a deep breath. "And then we have to go to Naruto's grandparents' house."

"Hold on a moment," started Ibiki, looking at Shikamaru suspiciously. "Why the sudden change of heart? You were hesitant to trust that Naruto even really saw Sabaku a moment ago."

The detective looked at the other chief evenly and took some time before he spoke. "There was a code," he said finally, "or a note, rather, that I had to decipher from the crime scene at the hotel three days ag—"

"We didn't know about this note," Neji interrupted angrily.

"That's because the chief begged me not to tell anyone about it," Shikamaru said, looking at Masashi.

Said man lunged forwards and was stopped again by the men who held him. "Liar!" he screamed.

"The note talked about a traitor…" he continued anyway. "Someone who had been around the whole time…someone who would show an odd color to himself soon…"

"Liar, liar, liar!" Masashi was screaming hysterically now, foaming at the mouth. "Don't believe a word he says! I would never in a million years work with that murderer—"

"Take him to a cell," the detective said, nodding to Neji and Chouji. "We have to go – _now_."

"What's going on?" Obito said, stopping Shikamaru from leaving. "I don't get it, what the hell just happened?"

"There's no way that Naruto could have known about the tip off," Shikamaru said. "That means that that note," he pointed to the letter Naruto clutched in his hands, "had to be written by Kaze."

"It could still be a trick!" Neji said, and he had to shout because Masashi was still screaming at the top of his lungs. "Even if it isn't Naruto's doing, we could still be going on another wild goose chase—"

"Neji's right," Chouji interjected, nodding his head. "Last time we ran into something like this…so many of us died…"

"That's why I'm the only one going with Naruto," Shikamaru said seriously.

"Wh…What? No!" exclaimed Obito. "You can't go by yourself? What if—"

"Listen to me," Shikamaru said, sounding exasperated. "We know what happens when we come in huge groups to capture Gaara. He's always prepared. Now that note," he looked at Naruto, "lists two times. A beginning time and an ending time. We probably have to get there before the time comes—"

"Wait, wait," Naruto cried out, "what happens when the time ends? What will happen to my grandparents!?"

Shikamaru looked at Naruto liked he wanted to say something but then he stopped himself. "I… I don't know, Naruto. That's why we have to go now—"

"I don't accept it."

Everyone turned to look at Ibiki, who was glaring at the detective. "You want me to just _trust_ you, detective of the Hatake branch, to bring a man who's just fired bullets into the night, to a house where the most notorious murderer of Northern-sect probably is, by yourself?"

Shikamaru turned to face him completely. "That's exactly what I want," he replied levelly, holding his ground. "There's always a chance that Masashi isn't the traitor," he continued, "so it's better not to bring so many people and take the chance that I am not the traitor he's talking about."

"Of course you're not the traitor," Obito started, "but—would you take him to a cell, already?" he snapped, turning to Masashi who was still yapping away shrilly.

"Right," said Chouji, taking a step towards the door. Neji followed him reluctantly on the other side of Masashi and they stepped outside, the chief pulling and pushing at them.

"Don't believe him! He's a liar! I'm innocent!"

"As I was saying," Obito said, looking back at the detective when Masashi's voice was far enough away. "I trust you, but I don't trust Gaara not to kill you," he said gravely. "You need some kind of backup—"

"Back up for what?" Shikamaru asked, almost glaring at the dark haired officer, "We don't know what Gaara is going to do – and I doubt that bringing an enormous team of police officers is going to stop him—"

"So you aren't even going to _try_?" Ibiki asked, disgusted. "You've made out Sabaku to be some kind of invincible being." he spat. "Why do you even bother trying catching him if you feel that way? Why are you—"

"Listen," Shikamaru interrupted, raising a hand. "I regret now, more than anything, following through with Masashi's orders and not informing all the other branches about the leads we had on Kaze," he started, "but if you'd been working on finding him as long as we have, you would know that there is absolutely no use trying to thwart his plans. They always fall through. People who he wants to hurt, _get_ hurt – no matter what we try to do. "

Ibiki was silent.

"I'm trying to go about things in a new way," Shikamaru stressed. "I'm trying to go about this in a way that doesn't harm too many people—"

"But what about _you_," Obito stressed. "Shikamaru, I'm ashamed to say your skills are the only really good thing this branch has going for it—"

"If I die, I _die_, but if there's innocent people involved," the detective turned to Naruto who was looking at him with his heart in his eyes, "we should at least follow his call…even if there might be nothing we can do about it." He whispered.

Naruto's heart sank.

Shikamaru was right. Even if they went, if Gaara wanted to harm his parents, he would have done it already, and no amount of planning could prevent that – the redhead would always be a step ahead. "Then what do we do?" he whispered, crestfallen.

"We go to Autumn Estates—"

"But Gaara is _expecting_ you," Obito said. "Why don't we make him wrong for once, and _not_ go—"

"If we don't go, Gaara expects that, if we do go, Gaara expects that too." The detective, said. "You can't pull on over him, you know that. You've been here when we've tried."

The raven-haired policeman hesitated. "B…but…"

"We don't have time," the detective said, looking at his watch. "Naruto, we have to go, Obito, stay on line twenty, and tell Neji to open the nationwide frequencies so we can keep in touch when I leave the city—"

"Line twenty doesn't extend even when we open the nationwide—"

"Then use line seventeen," Shikamaru called out, exiting the room.

Naruto scrambled after him, but had to make way for Ibiki who shoved passed him to follow the detective.

"I'm going to follow in a car behind you." He told Shikamaru, "and I'll have my men on hold right outside the Estates, in case there's anything we can do."

Shikamaru paused in his rapid walking, to look back at the bald man. He closed his eyes. "Fine." He said finally. "There's no harm in that I suppose. Have one of your men link their frequencies with my men. We don't have time do it right now."

Ibiki didn't ask questions, and walked until he was almost side by side with Shikamaru, with Naruto walking quickly behind them. He'd been quiet throughout most of this, because he just didn't know what to say. Things were happening fast, and Shikamaru was saying things he couldn't really grasp at the moment. All he knew was that his grandparents were in danger, and if he lost someone else, damn it if he lost someone _else_—

Shikamaru was almost running down the block, and Naruto had to jog behind him to keep up. He shoved the note into his pocket and broke out into a run. He vaguely registered Ibiki running to the other side of the street and getting into his car.

Then the detective stopped just ahead, and ran to the street to get to the driver's seat of a dark green car. "Get in," he called out, when he saw Naruto pause right behind the vehicle.

The blonde had had a moment's hesitation because he wasn't sure what his role was at the moment. Was he supposed to sit in the back of the car, as he was still kind of under arrest, or could he sit in the passenger's side? When Shikamaru only got into the car without an attempt at restraining him, he took a chance at the passenger seat, yanking the door open and sitting inside.

He barely had his seatbelt on when Shikamaru started the car, easing out of his parking spot and driving ahead.

Naruto checked time on the dashboard. 4:14. "What were you saying about those times?" the blonde asked, looking at the detective.

"Look at the times on the note," he replied, making a left turn, then checking his mirror to eye Ibiki's dark car behind him. "What do they say?"

"4:24 to 6:41."

"Exactly. I think we have until 6:41 to get to Autumn Estates before…well," he paused, looking troubled. "I don't know what he's going to do then. It's 4:15 now…Naruto, you said he left the alley when the police came – what time was that?"

Naruto paused, thinking. All he knew was that it had to be after midnight. "I…I don't know." He replied lamely.

Shikamaru hummed under his breath. "Well…you came to the police station at around 3:10 maybe fifteen…" he started. "And its about a forty five minute drive from your apartment building to the station….That means that Gaara must have left the alley at around 2:20." He said, stopping at a red light. He looked at Naruto. "If that's the case then everything adds up. It takes a little more than two hours to get to Autumn Estates, and if he left at 2:20 then he would get there—"

"At 4:20," Naruto finished, eyes widening.

Shikamaru nodded once, before looking back to the road and driving when the light turned green. "4:24, if we're being exact," he said, in reference to the note. "That means that Kaze should be arriving at your grandparents house in," he checked the time, "about eight minutes."

"And we're supposed to get there before 6:41? Then we have enough time!"

"No," the detective said, shaking his head. "You're not accounting for traffic – and I think Kaze did. If we're right, it took him two hours and four minutes to get to Autumn Estate. The time range he's giving us, gives us about eighteen more minutes than that. It's still early…but he had considerably less traffic than we will if he was on the road at three in the morning…"

Naruto cursed. "Then…it's going to be close…"

Damn it.

"We'll see." Shikamaru replied simply. "The traffic—"

"_Crch—Shikamaru?"_

Naruto jumped when a voice came from the radio…or what he thought was the radio, until he saw the small communicator hooked on the frames of the air conditioner.

"Obito," Shikamaru said. "Are you calling from line seventeen?"

"Yeah, and all the frequencies are open, and we've contacted the Morino branch so they'll be connecting with this line and listening in on our conversations." He said in one breath.

"All right."

"Where are you now?" the policeman asked.

"We're just about to enter the highway 6 South." Shikamaru replied, turning to enter said highway. "Then I think we exit on 35 West to the—"

"37 North." Naruto interrupted. "It'll take you to the Belt Highway faster than route 35."

Shikamaru nodded. "Right. Listen, Obito. I'm going to contact you when we're close. I'm sure Ibiki will as well, so we can determine the positions of his men."

"Right….Be careful."

Shikamaru paused. "I'll try."

There was a small beep, and Naruto knew Obito was gone.

Naruto swallowed again, the silence in the car reminding him just how daunting this mission they were on was. "What does Gaara want with my grandparents?" he whispered.

"You can ask him that when you see him." he replied simply.

"When I see him…" Naruto clenched his fists. "I'm going to rip him to shreds if he did anything to them…"

"How are you so sure that he'll even let you touch him?" Shikamaru asked. He stayed in the middle of three lanes and there was barely anyone on the road yet.

"He…" Naruto started softly. "He was…all over me in the alley." He said lamely. "I…I mean he wasn't…" he trailed off, not finding the words.

"He touched you?" Shikamaru asked tentatively, and Naruto saw his fingers flex on the wheel.

Naruto put his head down. "He…pinned me to the wall." he whispered. "And he…" started _moving_, he wanted to say. "He told me things."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, before he asked, staying tentative, "What did he say?"

Naruto clenched his fists then unclenched them again. "Weird things." He said. "Talked about death and how…we were all going to die or something – I don't really know." He shook his head, and looked up at the road. "I didn't understand a lot of what he said. But there was one thing that stuck," he said, looking at Shikamaru. "He said that he could see himself dying. He said he wanted me to kill him. O-or at least I _think_ that's what he said," he sighed.

"If he wanted you to kill him, then why did he run away?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head. "he said that he was going to go down fighting."

Shikamaru was quiet for some time. When he opened his mouth it was to say, "does this count for his fighting chance? To…" he hesitated, "hurt your family?"

Naruto shut his eyes. "If he hurt them…I'll kill him a thousand times over."

"Hmm…"

"Oh," Naruto looked up, remembering something. "he said that thing he wrote in the other note. About my tongue and the sun."

"Favor me your tongue and I shall not speak against the sun…" Shikamaru whispered.

Naruto turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "What is it?"

The detective shrugged. "It's just…" he paused, to laugh a bit. "Gaara's a bit of a poet isn't he?" he looked at Naruto for a moment, the ghost of a smile on his face, before he turned back to the road.

Naruto couldn't really share his humor for the moment. "I…I guess."

"I wonder," the detective started softly, "if you have to be insane, to get that kind of peace." He finished.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he continued, "he's so alone…He doesn't have to worry about anyone or anything—"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto interjected, frowning. "He's on the run – he's always running, and he always has to be on the lookout—"

"Naruto," the detective called out softly, but still managing to shut the blonde up, "do you really take Gaara as the kind of man to run? I'm not an idiot…I know that the police are a joke to him –"

"Then get the FBI, or CIA or whatever –"

"They've already dealt their hand in Kaze's disappearance. They left us when they saw that he wasn't really _killing_ anyone anymore—"

"He's killing people _now_—"

"Is he really?" Shikamaru said, and he looked at Naruto for a moment before looking back at the road. "The person who bombed the chief's son's building is dead, and your friend was shot by Sakura—"

"But it's because of _him_ that all of those things happened—"

"But he was not the wielder of any of the weapons—"

"But _he_ was the one who made them do it!" Naruto said incredulously, raising his voice.

"Listen to me, Naruto. If your friend was dead, and there was a trial to determine who murdered him, Haruno would be sentenced to first degree, _and_ if by a _miraculous_ chance we had Kaze in court, he would get tried as an _accomplice_—Naruto?"

The blonde was looking at the detective with wide eyes, and his fists clenched. "You said _if_ he was dead." He whispered, and he couldn't even hear himself, he'd said it so low.

Shikamaru kept looking from him to the road, and the blonde saw the moment when it clicked. "Oh, Naruto." The detective said, and he looked upset, "you thought he was dead?"

Naruto looked away and put both hands to his face.

Oh my God.

"Naruto…if you hadn't run away…"

Naruto didn't look up. He only dug his fingers into his forehead, and bit down hard on his bottom lip. "They said there was _no way_…" and his voice came out like a low pathetic wail.

He heard Shikamaru sigh. "Well there was." He said simply. "I didn't really get the details – everyone was trying to figure out what happened to Sasuke with a quick crime autopsy –"

Naruto was feeling too many emotions at once to add bitterness to it at that.

" – but they performed emergency surgery to get the bullet out, and did further testing to stabilize him once a man came. It might have been his brother; he looked too young to be a parent."

Brother? Kiba had no broth –

_Oh_.

"Shino…" he said, and was mortified with the thick way the word came out, affected by phlegm in his throat.

"Yes, him. I'm sorry I can't tell you more details. But your friend is alive."

Naruto felt his face grimace, and his dug his fingers into his forehead to keep the sob from racking his body. It was futile. It came out, loud and sharp and hurting his throat. He held the rest in, shutting his eyes tight to keep the tears from falling – but that was just as futile.

So many tears he'd shed for Kiba. So many tears.

Naruto gritted his teeth.

And Gaara.

_Perhaps your friend is not dead after all__…_

He had predicted it too, the bastard.

When Naruto finally looked up, it was to look at the sky ahead of him, dark, but losing it's stars with the coming light.

"Are you all right?" And that was Shikamaru, speaking softly.

Naruto shook his head. "I'm…I'm afraid to be happy …because I have no idea what to expect when we get to my grandparents house…"

The detective nodded, but didn't say anything.

Naruto checked the time. 4:34.

That meant Gaara was already in Autumn Estates.

"I can't say that everything is going to be all right…" said Shikamaru, catching the look in the blonde's eyes. "But I can tell you that…I have more hope for things to turn out okay, than I would have in the past…"

Naruto looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well…you met Gaara…and you're still alive. Facing him meant death before you did."

Naruto paused, thinking about that.

"You're special, Naruto."

The blonde blinked, and looked at Shikamaru with wide eyes.

_Special_.

He hoped that was enough to save his grandparents.

* * *

They arrived at 6:35.

The sun was rising from the horizon in a light yellow that made Autumn Estate look beautiful. It was a large suburb, outlined at the south with a small forest that brimmed with leaves all year, and were especially bright with orange leaves during the Autumn, hence the name.

Shikamaru followed the blonde's instruction to Little Leaf Manor, and parked his car in the large house before it, which was at least fifty meters away. They exited the vehicle in haste, thinking of the time.

"Let's hope Kaze doesn't have a fast watch," Shikamaru said under his breath. He hit Naruto lightly on the shoulder when he saw him crouching a bit. "Don't," he demanded. "You'll bring attention to us," he smiled at the man who he saw coming out of his home. The man gave Shikamaru a dazzling smile, and got into his luxury car. "Some neighborhood…" the detective said, looking around at the large houses and the expensive cars in each driveway.

"Yeah…" Naruto said lightly, still looking incredibly tense despite the detective's orders. Autumn Estates looked like it did the last time he'd been here, and he it had not left a pleasant impression on him. Now Naruto found hope in the way the sun was rising, and the way everything seemed to be in order – no police cars hanging about, no on lookers checking for screaming coming from his house.

Then again, Naruto thought, would that really happen? This was _Gaara_. Naruto bet he could murder an entire family in silence. Like a thief in the night.

They arrived at the long driveway of the manor, and Naruto thought of how easy it must have been for Gaara to sneak in…his grandfather never let his grandmother get the gates she always wanted…

"Naruto," and that was Shikamaru bringing the blonde out of his thoughts. "It's 6:38."

"_Shit_," the blonde hissed, and he practically ran to the front door, an enormous, white thing. He rang the bell once, than knocked hard on the door. "Gran! Gramps!" he shouted.

"_Naruto_," Shikamaru hissed. "The neighbors—"

"What if they can't hear me?! What if Gaara has already—"

Cl-_ick_

Naruto paused in his knocking.

The door was unlocked from the other side, and it was pulled open by—

"Brat! Don't you have keys to the place?!"

Naruto didn't spare a second before he leaped into his grandmother's arms. "Gran…!" he said into her breasts.

The blonde woman paused, looking down at his grandson, before scowling again. "I told you to call me mom." She said, pulling Naruto away from her to look at his face. "What the hell is wrong with you—"

"Where's gramps?" Naruto asked suddenly, cutting her off and walking into the manor quickly, pulling her along.

"_Hey_, brat—"

"Are you guys safe?" he said, looking around the enormous entrance room, and wincing at the bright lights on the ceiling.

"What the hell is wrong with you – are you running from the cops?" she growled. "Because if you ar—" she paused when she saw Shikamaru standing awkwardly just outside the door. She put her hands on her hips. "Another one?" she asked, lip curling. "What, are you planning some sort of orgy?"

Naruto paused, stopping his darting suspicious eyes to stare at his grandmother. "What?"

The woman glared at him for a moment before she gestured impatiently for Shikamaru to come in and closed the door behind him. "You and your friends can do what you want, but don't go near my booze." She waved a finger and began to walk towards a hall towards the end of the room. "You can violate Jiraiya's pansy alcohol all you want, but if you put your little hands on my shit I'll punch you back to that damned city." She turned and looked at them for a moment, pausing when she saw the look in her grandson's eyes.

"Are you high?" she demanded. "I sweat to God, you're the same idiot you were in high school—"

"Gran…what friend are you talking about?" Naruto asked softly.

The woman put a hand on her hip, scowling, "The girl who came at _four_ in the fucking morning for you." She spat.

_Girl?_

"Some fucking directions you gave her." his grandmother continued. "It takes two hours to get here from Suna – not fucking seven."

Naruto stiffened.

_Suna_.

"Where is h– _she_."

The blonde woman turned around, began walking towards the corridor again, and waved a tired hand, "I put her in your room. She said she would wait for you – but honestly kid, you could have told me you were coming first. Would have started drinking already…."

"Gran, wait," the blonde called out.

"No!" the woman shouted, and she disappeared around a corner. "Thirsty as hell…" The two men could hear her say.

"Naruto," Shikamaru said. "6:40."

Naruto gritted his teeth. Shit. "Follow me," he called out, turning, and making a run for the stairs.

Damn it, he thought. What was going to happen at 6:41? Was the manor going to blow up? Would Gaara kill his parents? He ran hard enough to clack his teeth, and he cursed his grandparents for putting his room at he end of the second floor hallway. Shikamaru panted behind him, and said something that the blonde couldn't hear over his padding feet, and beating heart.

Gaara was inside his house. And he went passed his grandparents like nothing.

Shikamaru said that people who met Gaara died. Did that mean—

He stopped abruptly, almost passing his room. Shikamaru bumped into his side, cursing as he did. "Damn it, Naruto" he hissed.

"Shhh!" Naruto sounded harshly, leaning his ear onto the white door.

He listened.

Nothing.

He moved back, and gave Shikamaru a look.

Shikamaru visibly set his jaw, and nodded his head.

"Get in there. I'll stay out here – back up."

Naruto stared at the detective for a moment, feeling like he was walking into a battlefield, before he nodded once.

Then he opened the door.

It closed quietly behind him.

His room wasn't the same way he left it. Someone had changed sheets, from the bright orange to a light blue. Most of his posters were still up, but some were on the ground, fallen and forgotten on the otherwise spotless wooden floor that shone with the same gentle mahogany that outlined the frames of the enormous open window.

Where Gaara stood.

With his back to Naruto.

"Haaah…" Naruto couldn't help the breath that left him – or was rather pulled from him, like a ghost he'd been carrying around for the past two hours.

He swallowed. "Gaara." And his voice was thick. And his heart hammered loud enough for the neighbors to hear. And his trembling frame would shake the entire house if he didn't stop now—

"Uzumaki Naruto."

_Fuck_.

He said his name like he was testing it for something, tasting it in his mouth and deciding whether or not he liked it—

And Naruto was shaking he was _shaking_ why the hell didn't he ask for a gun why the hell didn't he ask for a _gun_—

"You didn't listen."

Naruto paused. No. That was a lie; he was still trembling like pathetic, crumbling thing—

_Listen to what_? He asked in his head, but he couldn't say it aloud because his voice was stuck in his throat, his voice was stuck in his fucking _throat_—

And they stood there.

With Naruto staring at the broad back of the redhead. He wore all black, and the shock of long red hair stood sharply against the dark color of his clothes. He had pale arms at his sides, and stood incredibly still as he looked out the window, even with the wind lightly blowing into the room, and ruffling the hair on his shoulders.

Naruto swallowed again, looking for his voice.

He lost it again, when the redhead began to turn around.

And then he was looking at his _face_, and he didn't think he would ever find his voice again.

It should have looked less ominous, less _threatening_, but even with the sun peaking over the horizon, giving light to the dark room—

Those eyes.

Those _eyes_.

They looked at him with the utter lack of expression, dead in emotion but alive in _itself_ – an organ with thoughts, and depth, and a mission to make Naruto shit his pants.

And they stared back at him. Those eyes.

Which were coming closer now.

Naruto flattened himself on the door so fast his head banged against it. His heart's efforts to calm down were shot to hell, and he actually had to squeeze his bladder, to keep from soiling himself.

Small noises were coming out his mouth – a version of _stay away stay away stay away_—

But the redhead wasn't listening to the voice in his head. Naruto doubted he would listen to him if he'd said it aloud.

And he was sinking slowly and helplessly to the floor now, as Gaara came closer.

But he didn't get very far, because a firm hand was holding his shoulder now, and another was spread flat on the door beside his head.

The way his hands had been in the alley.

Naruto breath hitched, when Gaara brought his body closer – not _touching_ but close. It was like before. Outline against outline.

"Hm." And it was a low hum, like a coat to the deep tenor of his voice. When Naruto looked up at him, with trembling eyes, he saw the redhead not looking at him, but something below…

He jumped, when cold fingers were suddenly on his neck – caressing the skin there.

A wail he couldn't stop came out of his mouth, and he wished, for a moment, that Shikamaru had not told him Kiba was still alive, because then it would give him the anger, the _fuel_ he needed to get over this fear that ate him, like starving shark, it _ate_ him.

A cold finger traced a line on his neck, and he grit his teeth to fight the shiver that ran though him. But he couldn't help the hiss that escaped through those teeth, when that finger pressed on something in neck.

He was tracing the lines Masashi had made with his nails earlier.

Naruto closed one eye, and tore his head to side and tried to wriggle away from the touch, but the hand Gaara had on his shoulder kept him there, as his free hand explored his neck with delicate, fingers.

"This…is unacceptable." He murmured low, and deep.

Naruto shut his eyes – anything to keep him from seeing those glowing green orbs staring back at him – expressionless, yet threatening enough that Naruto had to lock his knees to keep from buckling.

A small wail escaped him when what felt like a thumb moved to his collarbone and pressed, as if bracing itself—

And then Naruto's eyes flew open.

Because there was a mouth on his _neck_. A heat encasing him like a contained fire hovering over his jugular and flaming the wounds there.

"Che…_ughn_—" And there his voice was again, but not saying the words he _wanted_ it to say. He brought both hands up, and pushed against Gaara's shoulders, but the man was like a stumped rock, keeping his position and—

"Ah—_fuck_!" Naruto screamed, and he tore his neck to the side, feeling like it ripped as he did, and brought a knee up to jab the redhead in the—

Gaara caught the knee, not even looking at it as it came to him, and Naruto stared back, with wide and horrified eyes, as he saw the small trickle of blood decorate the redhead's lips, blood from where he'd bitten Naruto.

"You…" And Naruto felt that anger again, that anger build in him like a hurricane over an ocean. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" he screamed, his fists shaking at his sides.

And damn it that fear was gnawing at Naruto's stomach again, as he stood there before the redhead, but damn him if he was going to let it make the biting bastard come near him again.

"There you are." Gaara murmured, and the blonde expected that non-smile to appear on his face, but it didn't. The redhead stood there, staring at Naruto with those passionless eyes.

Naruto shook where he stood, he fear and anger coursing through him unevenly. "You…you…W-what are you doing here? What do you want with my _family_?" He growled that last part out.

Gaara stared at him some more, infuriatingly taking his time to answer.

"I wanted to see you."

Naruto paused, his shaking fists stilling, momentarily.

"And," the redhead continued, and he looked to the side, and the gesture almost seemed human, "to fulfill my promise."

Naruto blinked once, and the rage came back – because that didn't make any _sense_.

"What was going to happen if I didn't come?" he growled. "What would you have done to my grandparents?!"

Gaara looked back at the blonde, eyes indifferent. And he said nothing.

"It's past 6:41 now!" the blonde shouted. "What would you have done!"

The redhead seemed to shift, and he tilted his head, slightly. "I would have left."

"Wh—"

_What_?

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"I would have left." The man repeated, in that same low murmur,

Naruto stood there, staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "_Why_?" He asked, and his voice was thick.

"Because you had not come."

"That…that doesn't make any sense!" Naruto shouted, and the heat he held in the glare towards the redhead hurt his eyes. "You would have just _left_? Then why—" he stopped, at a loss for words and staring at Gaara. "You…" he continued gravely. "are going back to prison today," he said, pointing a finger.

"Really."

"There are people waiting to capture you outside, and there's a policeman right outside this door—"

Listless eyes flickered to said door, then back at Naruto.

"—and they're going to—" Naruto paused.

And they're going to what?

He blinked; he didn't have a plan. They didn't have _plan_. How could Shikamaru let him go through with this without a plan? Ibiki's men were at the entrance and exit of the Estates, but how was he supposed to contact them and tell them when Gaara was arriving or if he would be on the run?

When he left his thoughts to look back at the redhead, he was still standing there, head slightly tilted, and looking at Naruto with eyes like spears.

Gaara took a step back.

Naruto flexed his hands.

Gaara took another step back.

Naruto looked from the redhead's face, to behind him, to his face again.

"You—" he started, eyes widening.

Gaara took another step back, never looking away from Naruto. "Call your men."

Naruto braced himself. "I won't let you get away," he growled, realizing what the man was trying to do.

"Then don't let me."

With that he turned, and dashed behind him.

"Wai—" Naruto ran forwards, arm reaching out, but could only watch as the redhead jumped neatly _out_ the window.

Naruto's speed brought him slamming against the window, and he looked down, searching frantically. At first he was assaulted by just how _high_ he was – and then he was assaulted by the fact that Gaara was not _there_. All he could see was the green of the grass, the green of the bushes.

Naruto paused. The bushes!

"Shikamaru!" he called, running out of the room.

He nearly slammed the detective, who'd been leaning against the door.

"Contact the others! Gaara jumped out the window! If we run we could still—" he didn't finish, and began running, hoping the other man caught on. He stopped when he didn't hear Shikamaru's steps behind him.

He turned around. "Shikamaru!" he called out. "What are you—"

"We wouldn't make it in time to catch him." the man said, solemnly. "Gaara probably has an escape plan that would make him disappear before we made it down the stairs. Besides," he added, when he saw Naruto open his mouth, "I already called the others. They're blocking out all the exits to the city, and a few of them are coming here to search the grounds."

Naruto relaxed, but inside he was devastated. Part of this was his fault. He'd choked when he'd entered the room. He'd let the fear eat him alive, and it took the man's _bite_ to bring him out of it. Naruto touched his neck, and cringed at the wetness he felt there.

"In the meantime," Shikamaru started, looking idly into Naruto's bedroom, "we should probably start heading out before your grandparents get suspici—" he paused. Then he turned around to enter the room.

Naruto ran up, and followed him inside. "What is it?" he asked

Shikamaru was at his desk, and when he turned around he had a massive blonde thing in his hands.

"What is that?"

The detective held it up. "It's your lady friend's hair."

Naruto opened his mouth in realization when he caught on. He'd almost forgotten that his grandmother said a _woman_ had come to see him.

"It's blonde…" Shikamaru said slowly, "maybe this was what he was wearing…when he was using his credit near your apartment…before he gave it to someone else, it seems…" he turned the wig around and looked at it.

It was a long thing, and when the detective held it upright, it no longer looked like a _thing_, but an actual long flowing mass of golden hair. Nearly the same color as Naruto's.

"How did you miss this when you came into the room?" the detective asked, looking at Naruto, and putting the wig back on the desk.

Naruto glared half-heartedly at him, "Because I had more important things on my mind."

Shikamaru wasn't looking at him though; he was looking at his neck. "What is that?"

The blonde knew what he was talking about without asking. He felt his face flush. "He…bit me." he mumbled.

"He what?"

"He bit me."

Shikamaru stared at Naruto for a while, before he burst out laughing.

Naruto stared, taken aback.

"He _bit_ you?" the man asked, disbelievingly. He continued on with his laughter, or more like a slow chuckle, before he wiped a tear from his eye and shook his head. "He never ceases to amaze me, that Gaara."

"What are you talking about?" the blonde asked, feeling slightly offended.

The detective only shook his head again, and gave Naruto a lazy smile. "Nothing; we need to get out of here."

"Shouldn't we wait for the others to come? There might be clues –"

"No," the detective interrupted. "We shouldn't be here."

"Why not?"

"Trust me."

Naruto started at the man's leaving back, at a loss. What was up with Shikamaru? He started to follow when the man got too far. "Are we going to meet the others at the exits?"

"If they're there." He replied simply.

"But you said—"

"Naruto," Shikamaru said, turning around, and the blonde was surprised to find a lazy smile there. "Let's just get home all right? It's been a long day for you…and I need to sleep too. The police will handle the rest," he straightened his back and his smile deepened, "Gaara will turn up again, and you'll be there to catch him."

Naruto stared at the man for a long time, before he nodded hesitantly.

But something was…off.

What was going on?

They went down the stairs together, and Naruto found his grandparents so he could say goodbye.

They left the manor shortly after, with Naruto's eyes darting from left right, futilely, trying to catch a batch of red hair, and keeping an eye for the police reinforcement Shikamaru had called.

They had entered the green car, sat down with the seatbelts strapped on, when Shikamaru started laughing again.

Naruto turned to him, confused. "What is it?"

The detective put his head down, and put one hand over his face. "Have you ever wished you could get away from it all?" he said, and it was a whisper. He turned to look at Naruto with a smile not only on his mouth but his eyes. "Like you've had enough of the world, and just wanted to disappear? Not die," he added, when the blonde made a face, "Just…be unknown for a while. A different person, in a different place, where no one knows you, and no one cares who you are."

Naruto stared at the detective.

Shikamaru laughed again, then he dug into his pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. He offered Naruto one.

"I don't smoke." He replied lightly, still looking at the detective with quiet disbelief. What was going on with him?

Shikamaru chuckled. "Someone in as much stress as you should have a cigarette," he murmured. "It's not everyday you become the object of affection to a notorious mass murderer."

"What?"

Shikamaru laughed, and shook his head again. "Nothing," he said, dismissively. "I don't know what I'm talking about."

He started the car.

Naruto stayed silent as Shikamaru drove, wondering why he was acting so strangely.

He'd been so caught up in the in wondering, that he didn't take much notice to the utter lack of police officials and cars in the Autumn Estate.

* * *

A knock at Naruto's door startled him to consciousness. He groaned, with a mouthful of sheets, from his bed, and tried to sit up.

Without his phone, he didn't know what time it was, but the darkness he could see outside of his window showed that he'd slept for at lease seven hours. He groaned again, and sat up from his bed.

Shikamaru had dropped him off at his house at around noon. They'd said their goodbyes, promising to see each other again, before the detective had driven away. The first thing the blonde did was go to Kakashi's and Iruka's apartment, and the couple were more than happy to see him, hugging him, then brutally chastising him for running away. They'd listened with wide, fearful eyes as he explained the events of last night, and had to laugh when Iruka said that he was one of the people who'd called the police after hearing the first gunshot echo through the night.

Then Naruto had been finally able to go back to his apartment, after plenty of probing questions, and food practically shoved into his mouth. He'd collapsed onto his make-shift bed the minute he did. Ignoring how clean his apartment was and who exactly had cleaned it for him, because he wanted to sleep peacefully.

And now he was awake, dragging his groggy self to open the door. He would bet the clothes on his back, that it was Iruka, making sure that he had dinner for the night, and smiled as he opened the door.

His smile faltered, when he saw Obito there instead.

"Wha—?"

The dark haired policeman looked at Naruto through dead eyes. He held his hand out, and Naruto stared at the folded loose-leaf paper for a moment, before he took it.

A cigarette fell down. He bent down and picked it up, and looked at Obito in question. The policeman said nothing. Naruto hesitated.

Then he unfolded the paper.

_Gaara keeps his promises. –S.N_

Naruto blinked. What?

He looked up at Obito. "What's going on? What is this?"

The raven-haired policeman stared at Naruto for a while longer, before he seemed to give up on finding what he was looking for there, and said. "Masashi's dead."

Naruto froze.

"And Shikamaru's gone. He was the traitor."

* * *

End of Chapter

Word Count: 17,100 words.

**Authors Notes:**

All right, I hate this chapter. It was so hard to write, and it didn't come out the way I wanted it to, and its freaking 4:30 in the morning when I was supposed to update this at midnight – ugh. Just ugh! If the first half of the chapter is considerably better than the second half, it's because I took my time with it, and the lovely **AkizukiSakura** beta'd it for me. The last ten thousand words are **completely rushed**, and it shows. I was going to make this chapter half as long as it was, and save the whole Shikamaru bit for the next chapter, but school is almost here! And I wanted the last chapter I posted before I started school to be long.

But anyway. Here it is. I'm really sorry guys. Review anyway? Ask me anything; this chapter might have been incredibly confusing.

Oh, and if you do review, can I ask if the r**eceipt-code thing was obvious**? : )

Tschüss.


	15. Fear Swallows Blonde Angels Part I-VII

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

**Warnings**: There are ten parts to this chapter – this very _long_ chapter, and it will contain: Inappropriate Confessions, Disturbing Images, it is at times Overbearingly Cliché/Drama-y, scene changes are sometimes Fast-paced, some parts may be a bit Slow, and there will be _Non-consensual_ touching. Also there will be constant changes in mood throughout the text. Some segments are lighthearted – and some segments are very NOT. Very, _very_ not. You've been warned.

**Extra Warning**: This is the first of two parts, as the chapter is about 40,000 words as a whole!

Chapter Fifteen: _Fear Swallows Blonde Angels, Pt. I-VII_

* * *

Part I.I

Naruto kept his eyes distant as he held onto the counter that separated his kitchen from the living room. Obito stood by the wall in front of him with his arms crossed, eyes distant as well, only with a bitter edge. Naruto was too shocked to feel bitter. A strange kind of numbness overcame him now.

"So…" he started softly. "What does this mean? Now that…now that you guys know the truth."

Obito's frown was deep. "Truth? What truth? The only truth here is that we were damned fools." He said through his teeth. "We were damned fools."

Naruto looked at the man with sad eyes. Now that he thought about it, Obito must have had some connection with the detective somehow. Something that made this betrayal wrench somewhere deeper than it could for Naruto.

"And to think," Obito continued, "Shikamaru was the most highly trusted out of all of us. Most calm. Most collected. Smartest. We should have _known_ something was wrong…

"It isn't your fault." Naruto felt the need to say. "No one could have known—"

"Oh please," the dark haired man said, waving a hand. "Save it. I know what I could have done to make this different. I know what _you_could have done too," he suddenly said, turning to fully face Naruto. "Surely you must have seen something weird with Shikamaru." He accused. "Surely there was…there was something that tipped you off, something that made you realize he wasn't who he…who he said he was." He voice became pleading at the end, and the sadness in his eyes made Naruto look away.

Yes. Shikamaru and Obito must have done more than just work side by side. They had to have been friends. And could Naruto have done something? Picked up on something before all of this happened? There were the strange things Shikamaru said in the car. The things about Gaara being lucky. About being a poet. Being free. But…

"In the beginning," Naruto began. "He didn't really seem like…a traitor or whatever."

"Maybe not on your end." Obito said frowning. "But when I think about it, he kept inventing ways to somehow sabotage our ways of catching up to you two. He initially gave the wrong signal line to follow you by – line twenty – when Shikamaru would never make that mistake. Line seventeen is the only one that could accomplish communication beyond the city." He shut his eyes and made a fist. "He almost led Ibiki on the wrong highway when you two were on your way, and he never contacted us when you guys arrived. Ibiki was outside the Estates waiting and waiting, and by the time he risked giving Shikamaru a call, you guys were probably on your way back to Mushroom. And Gaara – if he was even there – was gone."

"Gaara was there." Naruto said firmly. "He was in my room. And we…we talked."

Obito stared at him. "Two things," he began. "How are you even alive? Second, I find it peculiar that you say Gaara was there, because when we spoke to your grandparents they said you, Shikamaru, and another _woman_, were in her house."

"It was a disguise." Naruto replied, cautious of the suspicious tone in Obito's voice. "Gaara showed up in my house in a blonde wig, and told my grandmother that he was a friend of mine."

"Gaara." The policeman said flatly. "In a blonde wig."

"Yeah." Naruto replied, sounding almost annoyed. "I wouldn't make this up."

"Yes well, no one thought Shikamaru would betray us, but look what happened."

"Are you…are you serious?" Naruto half shouted. "Are you still going to suspect me, after all this time—"

"We worked with Shikamaru longer. We had no reason to believe _he_ would ruin us this way-"

"All, right, yeah, Shikamaru fooled us all, but I'm _hardly_—" he was caught off when Obito waved an almost violent, disregarding hand.

"All right, all right. Enough of this." The dark haired man said, closing his eyes and looking away. He looked tired. "If I'm being harsh it's only because of what's happened. Most of us don't suspect you anymore than we suspect everyone else in the department…" he sighed. "Shikamaru told us not to suspect you of anything anyway."

Naruto paused. "Shikamaru _told_ you?"

"Yeah. He called the department. By that time he was already packed up and leaving—"

"Hold on though," Naruto had to interrupt, "it's only been like…almost eight hours since Shikamaru dropped me off. How did all of this happen in that time? And why are you only contacting me now?"

"Forgive us if Masashi's sudden death caught us off guard." Obito hissed. "We had trouble from both sides; we lost contact with you and Shikamaru, and any attempts to go after you from our department would have been thwarted with Misashi's sudden…death."

Naruto paused, narrowing his eyes. "How did he die anyway?" he wondered if it was bad of him to be more concerned with Shikamaru's betrayal than the chief's untimely death.

Obito shook his head. "He died in his cell. They're saying it was a heart attack but we're…I'm not sure."

Naruto took that in. "A heart attack…"

"No one else was in his cell, there were no marks on his body when we retrieved him. A heart attack seems likely but…" The policeman shook his head. "I suppose he was under a lot of stress…or maybe not taking care of himself...but the attack was so sudden. Or at least from my perspective. I swear I spoke to him less than a few minutes before he suddenly…I dunno."

"Do you think…" Naruto thought about it. "do you think maybe Gaara did it?"

"How could he?" Obito asked, annoyed. "He was with you, wasn't he? Masashi died less than three hours after you left. You must have been with Gaara by then."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I was – but you know better than anyone that Gaara doesn't have to be at a certain place or time, to be the cause of death."

Obito seemed to be chewing on the inside of his mouth. "He's still a murderer though."

"Yeah, he is." Naruto said, stepping forwards. His eyes almost seemed urgent. "You know what Shikamaru said to me on the ride to my grandparent's house?"

"What's that…" Obito started, looking at Naruto's wide eyes with wary ones.

"He said that Gaara wasn't really a criminal—" When Obito narrowed his eyes, Naruto shook his head. "Not in those exact words. He was just saying how…" Naruto struggled. "He was saying how Gaara doesn't actually commit crimes, you know? People are never murdered by his hand—"

"But Gaara is the reason why people die—"

"That's what I said," Naruto exclaimed, his eyes staying serious. "But he said that if Gaara was somehow tried for say, killing Kiba or bombing Kakashi's building, he would have been tried as an accomplice because he wasn't the one who actually killed those people." He finished with a long exhale, and then stared at Obito who was narrowing his eyes slightly. "What?"

Obito blinked slowly, before he shook his head. "Shikamaru's right."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"He's right." the man repeated. "Gaara _didn't_ kill those people – your friend is alive by the way, did you know that?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said brushing it off, "Shikamaru told me. But what do you mean he was right? How could he have been right? Gaara is a murde—"

"Shikamaru was right in that Gaara, for those _particular_ crimes, would be charged as being an accomplice, not only because he wasn't the one actually committing the crime, but because we have absolutely no substantial evidence besides a few hunches that he was even involved in the whole thing."

"What the hell do you mean _substantial evidence_? Who else could it be—?"

"You see," Obito started, exasperated with the blonde. "That kind of talk doesn't hold up in court, Naruto. _Who else could it be?_ That's your hunch. It's everyone's hunch, feeling, instinct – _whatever_. That kind of shit would hold no ground against Sasuke's wife's _fingerprints_ on the gun she used to _shoot_ your friend." He was pointing an accusing finger at Naruto now, hoping to pound the information in.

Naruto was looking scandalized in the corner, with wide eyes. Finally, after several moments, he turned away from the policeman, scowling. "So you're telling me that Gaara wouldn't pay for his crimes if he was caught right now?" he asked, his voice a low growl. "That if he was before the court right now, he'd be behind bars for a couple of years for being a dammed accomplice—"

"What the hell are you saying, Naruto?" Obito said, looking at Naruto incredulously. "Have you _forgotten_ something? Gaara escaped _prison!_He cut his _life sentence_ short. When we catch him, not only will he be forced to complete his life sentence, more years will be added to it!"

Naruto blinked, and took a hold of the counter behind him. That was right. Gaara escaped prison…how could he have forgotten about that? He shook his head. "I forgot." He replied, apologetically.

"Of course you forgot." Obito spat. "Naruto I still have no idea what the hell you have to do with any of this, but you act as if you're invested in this somehow, and you get angry when things seem unfair or don't go your way—"

"You make me sound like a damned child," Naruto started, stepping forwards.

"Because you act like one." Obito deadpanned. "You criticized Masashi for rushing into things and being uncooperative, but you're the same way—"

"Where the hell is this coming from?" Naruto asked, incredulous. "And what the hell do you mean I'm like Masashi – I'm nothing like him—"

"You like to take things into your own hands and you know it." Obito replied. "Admit it. You'd much rather like it if you, and maybe Kakashi solved this grand mystery yourselves, because you've somehow convinced yourself that you are the biggest piece to whatever puzzle Gaara has laid out for us—"

"_Give me a break_. If the police were the least bit competent or reliable you would have never felt any of that on-my-own sentiment shit from me. If the police actually tried to help, and stopped kicking me out of everything in the beginning—"

"From what I've heard, you wanted nothing to do with this investigation in the first place!" Obito exclaimed. "You wanted to go along your merry way – you didn't even want to take care of Sakura's kid in the beginning—"

"Who the hell told you tha—"

"And now you're acting like some hotshot that the police can't do without, and that, frankly, pisses me off."

"You—"

"No. Listen to me." the policeman urged, cutting Naruto off. "Stop taking offense to things you don't understand. Stop putting all the weight of this shit on your shoulders alone, and stop acting like the police are the only ones making mistakes. You're no saint."

Naruto could only blink at the man for a long time. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked finally. "I don't even know how that—"

"Because I knew you were gonna go on some rant about the court system or some shit." Obito replied. "I knew you were gonna criticize the way things were done, without even remembering all the circumstances. When Gaara is caught, he will suffer for all eternity. His life in jail, and his afterlife in hell. There's no need to think that our flawed court system would loophole him around that. Got it?"

Naruto could only nod. "If we catch him in the first place…" he added softly.

Obito shut his eyes. "If I'm even here to try…"

"What are you talking about?"

Obito hesitated, like he was sorry he brought it up, before he shook his head. "There's been some talk," he began. "Now that Misashi's dead, with no one elected to take his place as chief, the UMPD is thinking of disbanding the department as a whole."

"UMPD? Disbanding?"

"United Mushroom Police Department, yeah. All officials from the Hatake Branch are undergoing a …criminal audit. They're checking everyone out, seeing if they had anything to do with Shikamaru's disappearance or anything illegal. Then they're transferring us to other departments around the city."

Naruto eyes widened a bit. "Transferred? Like they're separating everyone?"

"The people who are cleared, yes."

"That…" Naruto hesitated. He thought it was probably a good thing. If this poorly performing branch was separated and put into places where they could actually be of some use, Naruto didn't see why not. But Obito looked clearly upset about it. "So what happens now? Are you even a policeman anymore?" he asked.

Obito glared at him. "Of course I'm still a policeman. Albeit a policeman in limbo but still one none the less. No one is allowed to go back to the Hatake Department until the disbandment is over, and all of our residence's – meaning the people who used to work with Hatake – are being bugged and searched – everything."

"…Then did you just come here to tell me what happened or…"

"No, I didn't just come here for that." The man said, frowning. "I'm under strict orders to bring you back to a police department so you can be questioned."

"You're joking."

"Relax. You're no suspect. You're a witness. The Chief told me to tell you that."

Naruto frowned. "Chief? What chief? They sure replaced Masashi fast."

"You'll see for yourself." Obito said simply. "Now I don't have to put the cuffs on you to make you realize how non-negotiable this is, right?" he asked lightly. "The only reason I'm not dragging your ass into the cop car is because you're…important somehow. Like the annoying friend, the police wish they didn't have."

Naruto offered the brunette a smile, before he took another look outside. "And we're going in the middle of the night?"

"Seems that way."

* * *

Part I. II

The trip to the police station had been one full of more questions and answers, all of which Naruto knew he would have to relay back to the group of policemen he was being taken to. Other questions had to do with why they weren't on their way to the Hatake Police Department.

"Hatake Police Department is no more." Obito had said. "I told you this already. Disbandment effective immediately. We can still do our jobs, but we've been prematurely spread out until we know who can keep their jobs or not."

"So where are we going?"

"Momochi Police Department."

And now Naruto stared at the large letters in front of the quaint little office building before him. The place looked a lot smaller than the Hatake department. "So you've been assigned here for now?" he asked Obito as they walked towards the building.

"If I'm cleared – which I will be," he added, giving the blonde a small glare. "then this is where I'll work. Permanently."

Naruto didn't know why he wanted to ask the man how he liked the place so far, when they weren't even friends.

Entering Momochi Police Department was a completely different feel than what it was like in the Hatake Department. There was a large man at the door who looked up when he saw the both of them. He nodded his head and led them further down the department so he could take their things, write their names down and pat the both of them down.

"Why do you need to be checked too?" Naruto whispered, when the large policeman was turned around and writing something down.

"Chief Momochi's always been careful. I guess I'm not really a part of this trusted little family yet."

"Family?"

Obito shrugged. "You'll see what I mean."

The larger policeman turned around and gave the both of them a steady glare. "Criticizing already, New Kid?" he asked as he walked towards them. "The both of you are being checked and taken down because according to the UMPD, authorities need to keep a close you two. Especially you." he said, nodding to Naruto. "Now if you'd follow me…" he turned around and walked out of the room they were in, and went to another down the hall.

Naruto realized that the inside of the department really betrayed the outside. It seemed bigger, and much more welcoming than Hatake. Even the room he and Obito were being put into didn't look much like an interrogation room. It looked more like a large lounge, with a large rectangular table and an equally large red couch near the wall.

Obito, who was probably used to the place by then, took a seat on the long table, and began tapping his fingers.

"This place seems like a pretty laid back establishment so far." Naruto said, taking a seat beside him.

The policeman shook his head. "It's not. Momochi's Department is one of the best rated in the city. Probably because of it's…feminine touches."

"What do you mea—"

Naruto didn't have time to finish, because the door was opening, and an oriental woman in business attire was walking inside, as well as three other individuals.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the woman said, smiling and standing before them in front of the table. "I'm Chief Momochi." Naruto blinked when he saw her. He wondered if he was bad for expecting a man as chief, possibly a big burly fellow who was just as stubborn as Masashi was. But this woman…

He didn't think he'd ever seen a woman – an older woman – as beautiful. She had to be somewhere around Kakashi's father's age if she was_chief_ of the department, but she didn't look more than thirty.

There was another woman behind Momochi. Also with eastern features. She was much shorter, and looked much younger. She had a large stack of papers in her hand that she seemed to be struggling to hold. She, like Momochi, wore business attire.

The person standing next to the young woman was in police uniform. He...

Naruto narrowed his eyes at him. Like with Obito, the man held a Sasuke vibe with him. He was almost a sickly pale, with lips noticeably darker than his skin, and had short dark hair, that if he'd outgrown would have made him an impressive replica of Sakura's dead husband. The pale policeman was glaring at Naruto quite blatantly, while the man next to him…

Naruto felt his defenses fall a bit, when he caught sight of the – not _policeman_ it seemed, because the man wore business attire like the women who'd just walked in – but the man who stood next to the Sasuke look-alike. It wasn't the out of place large smile on his face, or the fact that he wore an all green suit.

It was the eyebrows. The large, clean cut, rectangular eyebrows.

"Hello, sir!"

Naruto jumped, startled when the eyebrows spoke.

"I am Detective Rock Lee at your service!"

It took Obito slapping a hand on his back for Naruto to realize there was a mouth somewhere below the eyebrows. A mouth on a face…

"Ah..uhm." he stood up, shaking his head. "Sorry. I'm Naruto." He reached forwards to shake the man's hand, and was about to pull back when he realized how awkward it was to do it from the other side of the table, but the detective didn't let him. He reached over and clasped Naruto's hand so tightly it almost brought the blonde to his knees.

"Pleased to meet you!"

"All right, Lee-san. Settle down." Said the female chief, smiling. She took a seat in front of Naruto, and the rest of her group followed suit, until the blonde and Obito were faced with four very different people.

"I'm sorry to have called you out of your home so late in the evening." The woman said, sounding truly apologetic, as she folded her hands together. "But If I may be frank, you should not have been allowed back in your home for as long as you have. Valuable time has been wasted, and I fear – no matter how inevitable the Hatake Department has said it was concerning anyone involved with Mr. Sabaku Gaara – the Hatake Branch has lost a valuable member _because_ of this wasted time."

"And what about the part where Masashi died and everyone was scrambling to resuscitate hi—"

"It doesn't take an entire group of policeman to resuscitate a single man." The chief said, effectively cutting Obito off. She said it with a soft smile, and soft voice, so Naruto wondered why he felt a small shiver run down his spine.

"Now," the woman continued. "before we begin let me introduce the team I've assigned to this case." She leaned forwards and to the left as she gestured to the green-clad man sitting directly next to her. "You've met Rock Lee, our detective."

"Pleased to meet you!"

Naruto nodded warily at the loud detective. So very different from the way Shikamaru was.

"Next to him, Officer Sai Lee."

"Never for a moment think that the detective and I are related." Was the impassive statement the policeman offered.

Naruto blinked. "Uh, sure thing."

"And here we have the very valued Hinata Hyuuga." The chief finished, gesturing to her right. The young woman next to her nodded her head, not meeting Naruto's eyes. "Her talents are usually restricted to research gathering."

"P-pleased to meet you."

Naruto almost didn't hear her greeting, but before he could respond, the chief was sitting up and clearing her throat. "I'm sure Obito has debriefed you on what exactly has happened, as he has debriefed me on your interesting involvement in this case. A case, I may add," she continued, looking down at a paper she had in front of her, "that has been kept secret from the UMPD and just about every department in Mushroom City until recently."

Naruto thought that maybe he detected a _slight_ annoyance in the woman's voice? He couldn't really tell with her.

"But now that everyone is informed of the progress Hatake has made with his people, we can more efficiently, as a group, capture a Sabaku Gaara. Before we begin – Hinata?"

"Ah, yes ma'am." She said, spreading her papers out until she was looking at one. Then she took what looked a tape recorder and pressed the record button.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at that. The Momochi Branch was certainly more…efficient than Masashi's was.

"Sabaku Gaara," began Hinata, "Born January 19, 1986. Age 27, height 6'2, skin color, white, hair color, brown, eye color, green. Born in Suna, bordering Mushroom. Both parents' deceased. Escaped Sound City Prison January 2, 2012.

"A-and," she stuttered, looking at Naruto for a moment before returning to her papers. "You are Uzumaki Naruto, born October 10, 1989 in Konoha, bordering Mushroom City. Age 23, height 5'10, skin color, tanned, hair color, blonde, eye color, blue. M-moved into Building 1312 of Kongata, Mushroom City October 23, 2012." When she seemed to have finished, she attempted to look at the blonde, but seemed to get shy and looked away again.

"Confirm that the information is correct." Said the Chief, a smile on her face. "Or if there are any objections to said information voice them now."

Naruto blinked at her. "Everything seems…right. E-except," he had to say. "Gaara's hair. It isn't brown. Not anymore. It's red – like _bright _red. Dyed."

Naruto saw the Hyuuga girl scribble something frantically on her sheet.

"So is it true what they say?" asked the eyebrows.

Naruto blinked at them, surprised.

"What do they say?"

"That's you've seen Sabaku Gaara! In the flesh!" a hand banged on the table, and Naruto realized again that it was the detective speaking, not the eyebrows.

"I saw him this morning," Naruto said to the detective. "_Twice_."

"When?"

Naruto told the detective the approximate times, but instead of the green man writing anything, it was the Hyuuga girl who seemed to be writing everything down. This was strange to Naruto, because wasn't he being recorded?

They asked more questions on what had happened that morning, and Naruto told them, in as much detail what had transpired. As he told the story he realized how incredibly long the day had been. He'd been up at twelve in the morning, then at the police station at three, to his grandparents at six, then back at home in the afternoon…and now he was at another police station.

And October 23rd was when he finally settled into his apartment? It was March now. That meant only five months had passed since this whole mess had begun. Those five months felt like five years to Naruto. He was, arguably, a completely changed man from back then.

"That's very interesting information you have, Naruto. And we actually have copies of the notes you say Mr. Sabaku sent you. Those, and many others."

"What others are you talking about?"

The chief gave him a small smile. "As soon as the UMPD found out of Masashi's death and Nara's betrayal they sent my men and others from the Morino branch to Nara's apartment. He didn't attempt to clear the residence of the _ample_ evidence proving his involvement with Sabaku. In fact, I'd say the files were set up so that people who would inevitably ransack the apartment would find it."

Naruto raised both hands, trying to process the information. "So…Shikamaru wanted you to find them? What did you find anyway?"

"Files, data on his computer. Hinata?" the chief said, turning to the young woman again.

Hinata straightened up in her chair, and tried looking at Naruto again. Alas her eyes ended up, once again, on the table. "I still have about a quarter of Nara-san's files to decode from his computer. I-it is not difficult at all, but it is t-time consuming. The online files seem to hold all information on the police officials in the Hatake Department – full names, maiden names, addresses, places of birth, et cetera."

"What?" Obito asked, sitting up at last. "Repeat that. Information on everyone at Hatake?"

The dark haired girl nodded her head. "Y-yes. O-only that's what's been coming up now, in the final twenty-five percent of decoding, and unlocking. B-before that it was about four thousand files on Sabaku's whereabouts dating back to August, a month after he escaped. I…I think that…"

When she didn't say something for a while, Chief Momochi put a comforting hand on her arm. The Hyuuga girl was startled by it, and her head rose from its downcast position.

"I think that…possibly…" she continued. "Nara-san began with good intentions, a-and then Sabaku-san got into contact with him…and changed him somehow."

"Hinata, you didn't tell me this information before…" the chief said lightly.

"I am…piecing things together now." The shy girl replied. "I-if you look at the files, Nara-san begins with very little information, and then…suddenly all imports b-become very detailed, a-and it is almost like he's relaying information told to him. N-not researched."

Everyone simply stared at her.

She put her head down again. "There is a zip file, that I've been decoding, since I was given his computer. It's labeled _Journal_. I suppose we won't be sure…until I've…" she trailed off, and looked away.

Naruto had to strain his ears the entire time the woman spoke, and now that it seemed she was finished, he could finally relax. What the Hyuuga said seemed very possible. Shikamaru couldn't have started as a traitor, after all. He became one somehow.

"That's very useful information Hinata." The chief said lightly, patting the girl on the arm again. Naruto squinted at that. It was like the Hyuuga girl was a child or something. Or maybe a little sister? The two did look alike, save for their eyes. Hinata though…She did look a bit familiar…It her was eyes…they reminded Naruto of—

"There are a few things we need to go over before I let you go, Naruto-san." Chief Momochi continued. "You are no longer a suspect, but you are a prized witness in need of our protection, and surveillance."

Naruto blinked at her. "Masashi said his people were gonna protect me too but—"

"We are not Hatake Department." The chief said, leaning forwards. Naruto found it really unnerving how her smile never left her face. "Officer Sai Lee has offered to be your protection for the duration of this case." She continued, gesturing again to the policeman. "He will be with you at all times. And I'm afraid that comes with rules. You cannot leave the city, you cannot leave his sight, and you will share a residence with him—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Naruto started sitting up. "I'm under surveillance? And that guy's gonna—"

"It's absolutely necessary, Naruto." The chief said, raising her hand. "Unnecessary and _non-negotiable_. You'll find the arrangements peculiar at first, I'm sure, but in no time, you'll grow used to Sai, and Sai will grow used to you." She nodded to both of them. "Now Sai has asked that he have you stay at _his_ apartment, instead of the other way around. He is to accom—"

"Wait, I have to stay at his _house_?"

"Apartment. And yes. It wouldn't really be an effective surveillance if the two of you went to separate homes at the end of the day. And Sai has expressed concerns about the area you live in—"

"_Concerns_—?"

"You're poor." Said the policeman, startling Naruto. When the blonde looked at him, he saw that maybe it wasn't really a glare the man was throwing at him, but a sort of…disregarding leer. Naruto frowned.

"You're poor and you live poor." Sai continued. "In a poor neighborhood, with poor people, and poor—"

"That's quite enough, Sai-san." Momochi said, raising a hand.

Naruto was at a loss for words. They were going to set him up with this guy? "What do you mean _I live poor_? That doesn't even—"

"How many rooms does your apartment have?"

The blonde paused. "One…?"

The policeman only stared at him, his face staying passive, but speaking volumes of how unimpressed he was.

Naruto glared at him. "Why are you making me work with this guy—?"

"Because I'm expendable." The man said emotionlessly, before the chief could answer.

Momochi laughed once, before shaking her head. "We all know that isn't true. Sai here went to the same school as Sabaku did. Albeit he was a first year so he rarely saw him."

Naruto widened his eyes, looking at the shorthaired officer. "You went to school with him?" he whispered.

"And that's the only reason why I'm here." Sai said, his voice still impassive.

The chief shook her head, that small smile still on her face. "You're good at what you do, Sai-san." she replied. "And you're readily available unlike a lot of our other officers—"

"Because your husband thinks I'm too incompetent for any real tasks."

The chief paused, and her smile almost seemed strained. "You two will warm up to each other." She said finally. She pushed her chair backwards then, and looked at Naruto seriously. "I think that Sabaku planted a lot more bugs around all the police departments." She said as she stood. "I'm having all my men re-evaluated as well, but with how long Hatake's detective managed to keep his real allegiance hidden for so long…" she trailed off and patted down her suit.

The rest of them stood up as well, and Naruto followed suit, a bit confused.

"W-wait. So what happens now?"

Momochi smiled at him. "You are officially under Sai-san's watch. You can't go nowhere without him. I suppose for now Sai will take you to your home so you can retrieve some things and—"

"He lives on the opposite side of me." Sai said, looking disinterested. "I have somewhere to be. We're going to my place, then we're changing, and we're leaving."

"What—"

"You won't be wearing any of your poor-person's clothes in my neighborhood. You will buy new ones."

Naruto looked like he was about to say something, but the chief interrupted him. "So long as you provide Naruto-san with all proper living necessities."

"He'll have a new toothbrush." Sai replied simply.

Momochi nodded at that, looking infuriatingly satisfied while Naruto fumed on the other side of the table.

"Well," the chief said, bowing a bit. "Again it was nice meeting you. Naruto we have all your contact information for when we contact you this week, and Sai will be your contact to us. You'll be seeing a lot of Rock Lee," she said, gesturing towards the green cladded man, "while you're under Sai's supervision. We will also keep you informed on all progress on the Gaara case, just as I hope you'll keep in touch with us on all of your new findings." With that, she turned around, and walked towards the door.

"W-wait," Naruto called out, going around the table. "I – wait." He cleared his throat. "I…I think I understand the whole surveillance thing. And I'll probably better off with it but…are you guys really going to protect me? And keep me included in everything?"

He heard Obito suck his teeth behind him.

"Well of course." The woman replied, turning to look at Naruto. "Keeping everyone informed, I believe, is probably the most we can do to ensure everyone's safety."

Naruto blinked at the chief. He was…going to get used to this woman of reason. "Thank you. Chief Momochi." He added, nodding.

The chief smiled. "Please. Call me Haku."

"Haku…" Naruto repeated softly. It sounded like a Japanese name. A male one, at that. But Naruto had heard odder names for women.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, stopping the chief once again before she could leave the room.

"Do you…" the blonde hesitated. "Do you know where they have Sakura?" It was something he'd had on his mind for a while. He'd felt emptiness for the girl for a while, but now that he was coming back to himself the emotions were swelling up again.

Haku looked like she was contemplating saying something. Finally she nodded. " Haruno Sakura is nearby." She said. "Not in any of our holding cells but in Morino's."

"Wait, what? Holding cell? Like – jail? She's in _jail_—?"

"Well she committed a serious crime." The woman said it like she was stating an obvious fact. "She attempted homicide. _But_," she added, stopping the blonde when he opened his mouth, "she's being well taken care of. Morino tells me that when she goes to court – which we all hope is soon – it'll be believable if she pleads insanity."

Naruto paused. "Insanity? Would she mean that or would be some kind of lawyer's ploy…"

"She isn't _well_, Naruto-san." Haku said softly. "Not mentally, or physically. Depending on the statement we retrieve from the victim Inuzuka Kiba, she will either spend some time in prison, a mental institution, or have to pay an expensive bail."

"Kiba? Why does he—"

"We need to know whether he wants to press charges are not." The chief clarified. "Tell me," she started, squinting at the blonde, "do you know whether or not your friend would decide to do so or not?"

Naruto blinked. _Would_ Kiba press charges? "Sakura…was his friend too…but…" he struggled. "I…I don't know. Sorry." He finished lamely.

Haku only shook her head. "It's fine."

"Wait," Naruto asked raising a hand. "Can I….can I see her, maybe? I-I know you guys probably have some rule against it but I'm probably the only friend she has right now."

The chief paused in thought. "Under normal circumstances," she started, "the answer would be no. I'll have to have something arranged. It probably wouldn't be for a while though."

Naruto nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, sure. I'll wait, I guess."

The chief smiled a little wider and him, and inched towards the door. "Will that be all?" she asked softly, playfully.

Naruto blushed. This woman really was beautiful. "Y-yeah."

The chief bowed once. "I'll leave you a little time to get acquainted with Sai-san—"

"We don't need to get acquainted." Sai murmured loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Naruto glared at the man. Sasuke had been annoying but only if Naruto actually egged him on. This man seemed to hate Naruto without him doing anything.

For the first time Naruto saw the chief's smile falter a bit. "Don't cause Naruto-san too much trouble Sai-san." She said. And was that a threat Naruto heard in her sweet voice? He would never know.

"Obito, will you follow us out?" Haku said, smiling at the policeman who'd been silent for the most part.

Obito grunted something before moving ahead of Naruto.

Naruto blinked when the rest of the group left, with the green-clad detective giving him two enthusiastic thumbs up before exiting with the rest of them. Why did they leave him alone with this Sai Lee person? He turned around to face said officer, and found that up close the man wasn't really glaring at him at all. It was like a blank and incredibly uninterested stare.

"So you're the one's everyone talking about." The pale man inquired. "You don't look special. What are you? 5'5, with small hands, and a dick to match?"

"_What_?"

"Do you even lift?" Sai continued, walking around Naruto, and eyeing him. "What would Sabaku Gaara have to do with someone like you?" It wasn't said accusingly, but the blonde felt insulted anyway.

"The hell is your problem?" Naruto asked, refusing to answer the question. "What have I done to you since I've been here?"

The pale man stared at him, looking almost contemplative save for the lack of passion in his eyes. "Hm." Was the only thing he said before shrugging his shoulders.

Naruto bit the inside of his mouth, containing himself. He'd dealt with people with more infuriating attitudes. He could work with this. "So what do we do now?" he asked, looking around.

"For now I am stuck with you." was all the man said.

"And?"

"And you are stuck with me."

Naruto formed fists with his hands. "Are we just going to stand here and talk? Didn't you say you had somewhere to be? Or something?" he almost said desperately. He wasn't thrilled about watched over in the first place, and they had to put him up with someone this infuriating as well? It was like the police just lived to screw him over.

"You're right." the man said, but the statement didn't sound appreciative of Naruto's rightness at all. "We'll go now."

Naruto didn't have time to respond, and found himself following the pale officer out the door.

* * *

Part II

Sai lived in a neighborhood that made Naruto wonder why he was worried about him wearing "poor" clothes. The way the policeman had spoken about Naruto being a little less than financially stable made the blonde think that he lived in a neighborhood that rivaled Sakura's in posh-ness, but the place they were driving though was nothing more than streets of quaint houses and small apartments. Naruto would have prefered to live here than where he did, he'd give the officer that, but it wasn't the kind of place one would generally aspire towards.

"So you live near Novenwood." He said simply, trying to start conversation with the man who sat at the driver's seat. Sai had stated very explicitly that he wanted Naruto to sit in the backseat of the dark car they were driving now. He didn't know if it was a car he was burrowing from the police or if it was Sai's own car, but he was glad it wasn't obviously a police car, otherwise sitting in the backseat would have been a little more embarrassing than it was.

"Near it." was the only thing Sai said.

Naruto scowled. The entire ride had been like this. With him trying to make conversation and Sai giving him impassive or rude responses. The ride was moving onto its twentieth minute, and Sai said it was a twenty minute ride, so…

"We're here."

Naruto sighed, relieved that they'd finally made it. He was a bit bitter that he wasn't able to go home and get a few things, but what would he have retrieved anyway? A few shirts, pants, and his toothbrush. He'd contemplated the idea that he was throwing Gaara off, and perhaps making the redhead wonder where he'd gone, but he'd scratched the thought almost violently and laughed bitterly to himself. Gaara? Thrown off? That would be the day.

He stepped out of his car, shivering a bit at the winds that picked up as he closed the car door. He was glad he'd brought his warmest jacket with him.

Sai had parked into a driveway of an incredibly small house. It looked like a one story place, with a timid flat roof and a distinctly rectangular shape to match a very plain square window. Naruto squinted at the thing. "Quaint." He said.

Either Sai didn't hear him, or was ignoring him, because the officer simply walked away from the car and in front of his house door without acknowledging the blonde. That lack of acknowledgement continued even after he'd entered the house, and Naruto had to scramble after him before the door closed in his face.

The inside of Sai's house betrayed the outside, but only a bit. It was definitely more spacious than the size of the home suggested, just like the Momochi Department, but only by a little. And it was a bit of a mess. There were pastel boards everywhere. The couch, the floor, the living room table. Some with paintings and some without.

"Here."

Naruto barely had time to catch the black thing Sai threw at him. When he looked at the pale man he saw that he'd taken off his shirt. A pale, slightly muscular chest stared at him, and Naruto had to wrinkle his nose.

"What's this?" he asked, holding whatever thing he was holding in his hand.

"It's the clothes you'll be wearing for tonight."

Naruto blinked, and looked down at the clothes. He narrowed his eyes as he stretched it. "What is…this _material_?" he asked, dumbfounded. It almost felt like leather, what he held in his hands. He stretched it further and stilled when he saw the thing as a whole.

By gods, it _was_ leather.

Naruto grimaced at the outfit, and threw it on the floor. "You've got to be kidding me," he said to Sai…who was gone again, disappeared somewhere down the long hallway a several yards away from the front door.

Naruto scowled walking forwards so he could find the brunette. There was absolutely no way the man could be serious about this.

He paused when Sai came out of a room down the hall.

Wearing leather pants and a belly shirt.

"Mother of God." Was the only thing Naruto could say.

"You have to wear it." Sai said, staring at him with the same unnerving passionless eyes. "Or you'll stand out."

"Where the hell are we going, that you want me to wear that?" Naruto cried incredulously.

"A club." The policeman replied simply.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "A…club? Aren't you…a policeman? Aren't supposed to be roaming the streets and keeping an eye on things?"

"I've been relieved of all my duties to protect you."

"And protecting me means taking me to a club." Naruto responded, his voice almost matching the passionlessness of Sai's except for the inflection of annoyance towards the end.

"Sabaku won't find you in a club."

Naruto hesitated. He wanted to say yes, _yes_ Gaara would find him if he wanted to. He believed that with all his heart. But that would only bring another impassive response from the man before him so it was pointless to argue. "I'm not wearing those clothes." He said finally. "The clothes I have on are fine. And we're not going to a _club_." He said, shaking his head. "Are you out of your mind? We have more important things to do, things to think about."

Sai only looked at him.

Naruto looked back, raising a blonde eyebrow. "Do you get what I'm saying?" he asked tentatively. He was beginning to wonder if the man's behavior was from brain damage or something.

"Is it because you're fat?" Sai asked suddenly, looking down at Naruto's clothed stomach.

_Was it because he was _fat_?_

"Is it because I'm _fat!_?" Naruto sputtered, looking at Sai and then down at himself. "Are you – _what_?" If anything he'd _lost_ weight these past few months. Anymore and he'd be skin on bones.

Sai nodded his head. "I have a looser outfit." He said, turning around to re-enter his room.

"Wait," the blonde began, going after the man. "Sai – _wait_."

Sai stopped, and looked at him with what could have been impatience behind that impassiveness.

Naruto stared at him, at a lost for words for a moment. Finally he said, "I'm not wearing leather."

Sai blinked at him. "Leather is all I have."

Naruto made a face. "Well then I'm going like this." He said, frustrated. "If we're going to going to a club, no one will care what I'm wearing." Naruto couldn't even believe those words were coming out of his mouth. A club? They were going to club of all places?

"Everyone will care what you're wearing." Sai said, looking like he'd just stated the obvious.

Naruto raised a hand. "Listen to me. I'm not wearing any of that crap," Then he hesitated. "Is it possible that I can just…stay _here_ while you…do whatever you plan on doing tonight?"

"Negative. You have to stay in my sight at all times." The officer responded easily. "Word is that all Sabaku needs is one moment of no one looking to do damage."

Naruto hesitated once more. "Word is right." he said lightly. "That's why I think we should just stay here. We'll be together, and we'll be safe. Possibly."

"We'll be together and we'll be safe at the club. Definitely." Sai said. "Sabaku won't find us there."

"Gaara can find us anywhere. Even a club."

"Not this club."

Naruto glared at Sai, making fists with his hands. "Fine." He said. "We'll go. But I'm wearing these clothes, and that's final."

Sai only looked at him.

Naruto kept on glaring. "If you'd let me go home, maybe I would have been able to find something—"

"Your home has been ransacked by now." Sai said, turning away and walking into a room.

Naruto followed him, "What? What are you talking about?" he stopped short of actually entering the room, which he presumed to be Sai's when he saw a small bed from the doorway, clothes strewn everywhere as well as more paintings. His police suit was the only thing neat, laying on the bed.

"Chief Haku didn't want to tell you," Sai began. "But you wouldn't have been allowed back in your house either way. Zabuza demanded a top down search of your apartment. Don't be surprised if it's upside down now."

"What? They searched my house? And who the hell is Zabuza?"

"Zabuza is…" Sai seemed to hesitate. He was bent over and putting a very dark and tall boot on. "He's the other boss." He replied finally.

"What? Why didn't they just—"

"Obito," Sai said, cutting Naruto off, "was on orders to bring you out of your apartment so Zabuza's men could infiltrate."

"_Infiltrate_? Did Haku intend on letting me go home at all?"

Sai stood up straight from putting on his boots and shrugged. "Probably not. Zabuza is always thorough."

"Who the hell is Zabuza?!"

Sai sighed. "I told you. He's the other boss. The other Momochi."

Naruto paused. "The other Momochi? What? Are they related?"

"They're married."

"So…" Naruto began softly. "While her husband was tearing my apartment she was playing miss nice Chief to get on my good side?" he asked accusingly.

"Mister nice chief."

"What?"

Sai looked at Naruto, showing the tiniest bit of emotion in his eyes. Too bad it was frustration. "Chief Haku Momochi is a man." He said simply, before leaving the room, and bumping the sputtering blonde's shoulder along the way.

"W…what?!"

"You say 'what' a lot." was Sai's response from the living room.

Naruto followed behind him, his knees giving out for a moment before he was where Sai was, and still gaping. "Are you joking? You're joking."

"I'm not."

Naruto stared at Sai.

Sai paused in whatever he was doing and stared back.

"…"

"…"

"Please wear the outfit."

"No!" Naruto shouted at him, frustrated.

Sai's eyes seemed to sigh, and he occupied himself again. "You'll be humiliated." Was all he said.

Naruto wondered how a man clad in a leather belly tank-top even had the right to say that.

* * *

Part III

The time reads 23:34 in the Momochi Department digital clock.

Hyuuga Hinata sits in front of a large, mangled computer. It's obvious it has been haphazardly pulled out of a wall. No matter how many times Chief Haku tells his men to be careful with the evidence, they always manage to break or temper with precious material. And it is always up to Hinata to fix up the pieces before she can get to the inner workings of all the computers brought in for evidence.

It has been about four hours since Uzumaki Naruto left with Sai-san. In that time she has found that the last ten percent of the files left to uncover and decode in Nara-san's computer are going to be the most difficult. The computer had been a Xindows TC, which were considerably easier to unlock than Pacbooks or Pacintosh operation systems, so Hinata'd been grateful for that. But Xindows systems had older and sturdier tricks for keeping things hidden from public eyes, she thought, narrowing her own eyes when the umpteenth code decoder she'd created was once again rejected by the .exe Parasite Blocker that seemed to hang around the .zip file named _Journal_.

The trouble she was having both frustrated her, and gave her hope. The fact that Nara-san guarded the file so well meant that it had to be something important. Something that he did not want anyone to see even though he seemed to not care about all the other files being revealed.

One of the codes she created to unlock the .zip file revealed, not the actual Journal files but their extensions. The extensions revealed not only word files, but sound files, video files, and the actual compressed size of the entire folder. 2GB's. Compressed, and still two 2GB's? Hinata thought. That meant the folder uncompressed by the .zip extension had to be huge.

She pursed her lips when yet another code was rejected by the .exe Parasite Blocker. It had to be something Nara-san had made himself, Hinata thought. A password protector and shielder that would not only eat all codes and extensions that would reveal the original passcode to the .zip file, but hide said passcode when the system was temporarily vulnerable as it fought of Hinata's decoders.

It was impressive. Nara-san had always been impressive.

Hinata frowned. But she would beat this yet. She knew computers, like she knew how to gather information.

The time reads 1:23 on the Momochi Department Digital Clock

Hinata prepares to enter a new code. Made from scratch, and thought out by extracting all the possible mistakes of the previous codes, and by careful watch of the lines of digital information that sped through the computer screen when each code was rejected.

Hinata watches. Hinata waits.

Code. _Enter_.

…_zipEXE – Paras0tebLoKer / processing__…__. exe./%script% / Ehbinframe%html. EXE/09WGH. / Paras0tebLoKer / processing__…__exe./+=?*/% / Paras0tebLoKer__…__processing__…__processing__…_

Hinata holds her breath.

…_processing__…__process__…__ % Paras0tebLoKer - /scriptoverride%__…__processing complete._

Hinata blinks.

She watches as the .zip file appears before her, and numbers and letters fly through the bottom of the window before the .zip extension file pops and is replaced with a manila folder icon.

_Journal Folder._

Hinata celebrates with a small squeal into her hands. Someone was to out-savvy her in computers yet. When she calms herself down, she clicks on the Journal file, and waits.

She narrows her eyes. Inside the folder, are two more folders. One labeled 'Notes'. The other labeled 'Video'.

Naturally she clicks the video folder.

Her eyes widen. Not at the sheer amount of files, but at the titles of each of the files, labeled with a name and a number. A _date_.

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.11._

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.19._

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.28._

_Naruto__…_

_Naruto__…_

_Naruto__…_

Hinata scrolls down the page, a hand on her mouth.

There are more than a hundred videos.

_Naruto-san_, she thinks, shaking her head.

_He's been watching you__…__all this time__…_

She gets up to tell the Chief her findings.

* * *

Part IV

To say that Naruto was scarred for life would have been the grossest understatement of the millennium. There were things he could deal with, things that came at him without warning that he accepted with ease, and eventually mastered with his ability to adapt, and to _conquer_.

The_ Glory Hole Night Club_ wasn't one of those things.

The _Glory Hole Night Club_ would never be one of those things. Even if it introduced itself politely, and asked permission to grace Naruto's life, the blonde would have still been grossly unprepared, and unqualified for the calamity, that was the _Glory Hole Night Club_.

In retrospect, he should have known. He should have known from the start. He should have known from the _leather_. The skintight leather half shirt and the pants that squeaked and squealed with ever step they'd walked towards the train station.

Naruto shut his eyes, and wiped eye crust away from his tired eyes. The walk to the train had been brutal. Cold, and uncomfortable as people watched Sai – no – as people watched Naruto _with_ Sai the _police officer_, clad in shiny leather. Not that anyone would know Sai was a police officer. Not from that, anyway. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the fact that the blonde was being associated with the leather man with every step he took, and every eye that fell on his embarrassed face, and shabby clothes, and wild uncombed hair.

And Sai.

_Gods_ Sai.

Naruto moaned into his forearm, remembering the way Sai _strutted_ through the streets, as if practicing some deranged catwalk, in some deranged fashion show where policemen wore leather.

Both of his hands were on his face now, as the memories came back to him. Little by little, but still much to quickly for his poor and abused mind.

As embarrassing as the way to the club had been, Naruto would have chosen it over the _Glory Hole Night Club_ any hour of any day.

The _Glory Hole Night Club_.

The _fucking Glory Hole Night Club_.

Naruto wanted to scream into his hands. What did he think he was getting into? He'd stood on the line, he saw all those…men, and their…_costumes_ – What did he think he was getting into?

It had been a gay club.

A gay club, go figure.

And Naruto had never been so uncomfortable in his life.

There was always room for acceptance in his heart. But he accepted with strides, not leaps into a blazing fire.

Sai had pushed him into the club despite Naruto's hopeless protests, and immediately he'd been swarmed left and right with men and woman acting like wild animals to music so loud Naruto couldn't hear himself think. And that had been fine, really it had been fine. Naruto had been to parties before – he was no old man.

But he'd lost Sai in a matter of seconds. And every time he thought he'd spotted him in a corner tongue-banging someone ten times his size, he would lose him before he could reach his side. Naruto had spent most of the night sitting at a bar and politely telling all the men who asked him to dance that he was "with someone", or having arguments with men who seemed pissed off with what he wore. With what he wore, of all things! As if any of them had any style to speak of, with their leather, and vinyl, and skinny jeans.

Naruto grumbled something non-comprehensible even to himself into his arm. He was angry. Not because he'd been forced into a gay bar, but because Sai was so incredibly rude, and so blatantly disregarding of Naruto's feelings. He left Naruto on his own, he'd gotten drunk, and he'd brought another man home, a man who'd insulted Naruto the entire way back to Sai's house – it was a miracle Naruto found Sai toppling over another man and about to leave without him just as he was about to find his way home himself– and had graciously screamed vulgarities for most of the early morning from his bedroom with said insulting man.

Naruto knew his eyes were probably red right now, from lack of sleep. But he didn't feel tired. Not anymore. And he wanted to get out of this house. Immediately. He'd thought Haku would leave him someone competent, someone who would care for him, but he was obviously wrong. He knew he couldn't trust the police. He should have decided not to trust Haku the moment when Sai told him that his husband's men were ransacking his house.

And now _that_ thought was making him angry. Not the fact that they didn't ask for permission, but the sneaky way they decided to do it behind his back. And using Obito to lure him away? Those bastards.

Naruto wondered what his apartment looked like now. A mess and in shambles, all because he was under suspicion yet again. And when the police find nothing in his apartment, would they even apologize for what they did? Admit that it was a mistake? No, they would say it was part of their job, and they would leave Naruto on his own to clean the damned mess.

Naruto sat up, then stood from the couch, fuming. He still wore his clothes from the night before, and he knew he looked horrible.

He was leaving. No matter what anyone was going to say he was leaving. He was going to find his way home, he was going to fix the mess that the police made, and then he was going to go to the hospital to support his friend.

He wondered, for a moment, if he should at least find the bathroom to patch himself up, but he didn't want to go down the hall where Sai's door was; he didn't want to be anywhere near that man right now. He rubbed some more crust out of his eyes, and found a reflection of himself on the glass of a dark glassed and hanging painting. His reflection didn't reveal him as an absolute mess, so he simply patted his hair, wiped vigorously at his face with his hands, and nodded back at the Naruto that stared back at him.

He went for the door then, ready to leave.

He didn't even get to turn the doorknob.

"Naruto."

He paused, skin shivering for a moment, before he looked over his shoulder.

Sai was there, clad in nothing but boxers. His eyes looked dead, and his skin was marred with bruises and cuts that Naruto knew weren't there the night before.

"Where are you going." It was said very softly, and the deadness of his voice, matched the deadness of his eyes.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Was Sai hung-over? It didn't matter to him. "I'm leaving." He said. "I'm going to fix my shit, and then I'm gonna visit my friend at the hospital. You can't stop me." he turned back around then, and dutifully opened the door—

"Wait." Again, it was barely above a whisper.

Naruto reluctantly turned around again. "What?"

"Stay."

Naruto bared his teeth. "Stay? _Stay_? After what you put me through last night?!" he exclaimed, incredulous.

"I'm sorry."

Naruto blinked. "What."

Sai didn't say it again. He only looked on with those dead eyes. Not passionless, not impassive – dead. Like a pale, lifeless doll.

"Sai, is something wrong with you?" Naruto asked carefully.

"Stay." Sai said, before he turned around slowly – and it seemed to take a lot of him to do so – and limped back into his room.

Naruto stared at his back, hesitating for a moment, before he followed after the brunette.

"Sai," he started, when he reached the room. "What's wrong—" he stopped when he saw the room. He scanned for a moment, looking left and right, before "Where's that guy?"

Sai was pulling on a pair of pants over red, black, and blue bruises and cuts. "He left." He replied simply.

Naruto winced as he watched the pale man walk over to take a shirt. It took a minute longer for the blonde to realize that Sai was putting his uniform on.

"Sai," he began, "What are you doing?"

The officer didn't respond for some time, instead bending down to pull on a pair of white socks. "I'm taking you." He said finally.

Naruto blinked. "You're…taking me? You mean to my apartment and the hospital?"

"Yes."

Naruto looked troubled. What was going on? Sai wasn't being polite but…he definitely lost a bit of himself since the night before. What happened? "Why?" he asked. Maybe Sai was still drunk, and didn't know what he was doing? In which case he wouldn't be driving Naruto anywhere.

"Because it's my job." Sai replied easily. He turned around, and was facing Naruto, dressed in his uniform. "Be with Naruto Uzumaki at all times. Protect him."

Naruto wanted to say, well you weren't doing much of that last night, but something about the way Sai's eyes reflected nothing made him stop.

"Let's go to the hospital first." He said finally, taking a step back, and keeping his eyes narrowed at the policeman. "I think…that maybe you need to get checked out too."

Sai blinked once, eyes revealing nothing. "All right." he said, expressing nothing, before he walked forwards to leave his room.

* * *

Part V

The hospital had very bad memories for Naruto.

Very bad.

He remembered standing around and pacing, and clutching his hair, and moaning, and crying, and people watching him—

Bad memories.

Naruto felt uncomfortable here. He didn't trust anything. Not the white floors, the white walls, the white lights, not the nurses, not the doctors, not the desk attendants who were so polite to him but still so untrustworthy.

Naruto did not like this hospital. It was much smaller than the one he was used to, the one where his grandmother used to work, and where he'd been taken to see the mangled bodies of the Building 1313 disaster.

The hospital was quaint. And it was untrustworthy.

They'd taken Sai away for inspection, and the police officer had mumbled something about having to protect Naruto, but did not protest physically as they took him.

And when Naruto asked to see Inuzuka Kiba, all the desk nurses looked at each other then looked at him from the corner of their eyes. 'It's him.' Those eyes were saying. They'd recognized him from that day.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he'd told them and he saw the recognition in their faces reach completion, before they gave him hard smiles and told him the room number, and the allotted time he had, as he wasn't a family member.

And now Naruto was in Kiba's room hating this hospital. With it's white walls, and white floors, and white lights – he hated it. Bad memories. Much too many bad memories.

Room 212. He had to take the stairs to get here. Last time, Kiba'd been on the first floor, rushed somewhere in an operating room and when Naruto tried to ask questions they kept brushing him away.

Naruto left because as he kept freaking out about his friend, all the police and nurses kept talking about was Sasuke's head this, and Sasuke's head that. Sasuke's head was a dead head and Kiba was a live _person_ who'd needed more attention than everyone was giving him.

Naruto bit the inside of his bottom lip as he stared at Kiba. The last time they were together Naruto was crying and screaming over his dead body. It felt…awkward somehow. Showing up suddenly when Kiba had been in the hospital a few days already. Would Kiba be mad about that? Naruto closed his eyes. That didn't matter. All that mattered was that his friend was alive. Probably the only real friend he had left.

Kiba didn't look bad at all for someone who'd been shot. Granted his midsection was covered by a white sheet, and his arms and face looked a little pale. But still. He was breathing heavily, deeply. Maybe even having dreams. Naruto didn't know why he felt like brushing his friend's dark hair away from his face. A bit of it hung on his forehead and cheek. Naruto shrugged his shoulders. It didn't matter, he realized. Kiba always brushed his hair out of his face when he was awake. As a friend the least Naruto could do was brush it back while the man was asleep.

He reached over, his hands steady as he swiped the hair on Kiba's forehead to the side, and fanned the hair on his cheek until it collapsed behind his ear.

_There_. Naruto let a small smile graced his lips. Kiba would be okay, he thought.

"Mmn…"

Naruto started, staring at Kiba's twitching face. "Kiba?"

A motion seemed to pass through his friend's face like a wave of wakefulness before his eyes finally opened. His eyes didn't focus right away; instead they were glazed and looking at the ceiling.

"Kiba…" Naruto said again, putting a hand on his arm.

The brunette's forehead crinkled, and that motion seemed to bring a bit of life to his eyes. He moaned again. "Sh…Shino?" he asked, turning his head ever so slowly.

Naruto frowned a bit. "No," he said, when Kiba was looking at him with narrowed eyes. "It's me, Naruto." He offered a small smile, hoping Kiba would accept it as the apology it was, for not staying when he needed him the most.

Naruto saw when recognition passed through his friend's face. Kiba sat up on his elbows, and the effort it took to do that showed in his face. "Naruto? Wh…" he paused, pain scrunching up his features as he tried to sit up some more.

"W-wait. You don't have to," Naruto leaned to put a hand on Kiba's back and support him.

"I'm fine," the brunette replied, waving a hand. With that he set his palms on the bed and quite efficiently sat himself upright. He grunted the entire time, so it didn't quite settle Naruto's worry but he was impressed none-the-less. When the pain seemed to finally shift from Kiba's face, he turned around to face the blonde, fatigue and a bit of disorientation in his eyes. "Naruto…" he repeated, squinting.

Naruto found that he had nothing to say. What _was_ there to say? "I…I'm so glad you're okay." He settled with. "I was so afraid…"

Kiba said nothing for a long time, simply choosing to stare at the blonde. There was no accusation in his eyes, but Naruto felt like he was in the hot seat anyway. Finally, "Sakura shot me."

It was said lightly enough that Naruto had to wonder if Kiba was upset about it. "Yeah…" he replied lamely. "She did…"

"The police came by before. Earlier. Yesterday. Earlier." Kiba twitched once, and a hand that trembled softly came to wipe his brow. "They asked me if I wanted to press charges."

Naruto sat up straight, breathing in sharply. He remembered Haku talking about that. "Well…what did you say?" He didn't know what he wanted to hear. Did Sakura deserve to have charges against her? How much of her mind was her own that day in the hotel room? How much of it was hysteria she probably couldn't control?

"I said I didn't know." Kiba said finally. He looked ahead now, at the wall opposite his bed.

Naruto paused, looking at Kiba carefully. "You don't know…" his eyes dimmed a bit before he nodded. "You don't know." He repeated.

To his surprise, Kiba let out a small chuckle. "Relieved?" he asked, his voice weak. The laugh seemed to get stuck in his throat, and he began coughing instead.

Naruto put a tentative hand to his friend's back. "Relieved?" he repeated. "No…I don't know what to think. When Sakura first shot you I…"

Kiba looked up at Naruto then, eyes expectant.

Naruto laughed nervously. "I kind of went crazy when she shot you." He said, putting a hand behind his neck. "I didn't hate her…I was just so _over_ her. Like…all this time I'd been looking for her, and thinking about her, and when I finally saw her she wanted to kill me, and I just…I dunno." Naruto sighed, looking down at his lap. "And then she shot you. And I just…I wasn't myself for a while." He finished lamely. He brought careful eyes back to Kiba's and was a bit startled to find brown eyes staring into his.

"That day…" Kiba began, blinking, but not looking away. "I don't remember…much of it. I remember being with you. Eating with you…and then Orochimaru decided that one of the newbies should take my shift so…I guess I was free…" Kiba turned away then, and his eyes narrowed in front of him. "Then I went to get you and…" He stayed quiet for a long time.

"Kiba?"

"I don't even remember getting shot." The man said softly. "A lot of…everything has just been a blur. I don't know…how to feel. It just seems like another dream."

Naruto hesitated. "Another…dream? Have you been…dreaming alot?"

Kiba shook his head. "Sorry. It's just…my mind has been…" he trailed off, looking at his lap and glaring at it as if it was the reason he was feeling this way.

"Tell me about it." Naruto urged his friend, lightly. "I'm here for you."

"Here for you…" Kiba repeated, his voice soft. He stayed quiet for quite some time again, before he spoke. "The doctor says that it's the drugs they've been giving me, that's making me feel…out of place. Half the time…I feel like I don't know where I am…and things that I think happened…haven't really happened. Like," he seemed to struggle, "like…I dunno." He sighed out, shaking his head. "It's these stupid dreams. I guess I just need to rest."

"What dreams, though?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes. "What are they about?"

Kiba laughed a bitter, ugly laugh. "That's the other thing. I don't even remember them. At least…not all of it. I just remember how they make me feel."

"How do they make you feel?"

Kiba opened his mouth to speak, and then he closed it and seemed to really think about the question. "They make me feel…like killing myself." He finished. He exhaled deeply, and clutched the sheets around him. "Makes me feel like I'm worth nothing. Like I…" he shrugged his shoulders again.

Naruto stared at his friend, disturbed. "And the doctor says it's the drugs they're giving you? What drugs?"

"I don't know. Something to keep the pain away. To help me sleep."

"Hmm…And you…don't remember the dreams at all?"

Kiba wiped his brow with the bottom of his palm. "Not _at all_." He clarified lamely. "I remember…the outlines. Everything just…fades in and fades out – I dunno. I just…Like right now," he said, looking at Naruto. "How do I know that this is happening…?"

"Of course this is happening." Naruto said. "Are the dreams that bad that you can't tell that this is real?"

Kiba gave Naruto a miserable look. "It's not like they seem real. It's just… I feel like it's always happening and…I'm always so _tired_. Everything's just blurry, and I don't know what to do with myself."

Naruto raised a hand to his brow and closed his eyes. "Wait Kiba, just – tell me one of the dreams? Help me understand you."

Kiba looked at his friend a bit more before he sighed. "I…it's like I'm going crazy in them." he whispered, his voice shaking if only just a bit. "And I'm always…talking to someone…either…fighting them….crying with them…hearing their stories…"

"Someone where?"

"I don't know. Wherever I am. And…there was this one dream," he started, and the small shiver he made afterwards was visible. "There was…a little boy. God, Naruto," he continued, shaking his head. "This kid was so…"

"Was so what?"

Infuriatingly, his friend shrugged his shoulders again. "He was so…_sad_." He almost shouted, and a confused and weak laugh came from his mouth, like he still didn't understand it. "He was so…" Kiba wiped a hand through his hair. "Oh, man. I just feel like…my heart keeps breaking and I don't know why."

Naruto kept his mouth shut, not really knowing what to say. Naruto had his own fair share of strange dreams lately but these seemed to be taking its toll on the brunette. "Did you tell Shino about it?" he asked.

Kiba closed his eyes, and the edge of a smile was on his mouth. It took Naruto a moment to realize it as a bitter one. "Shino and I…" he sighed, shaking his head. "I…he came by …yesterday. Or earlier. I don't know. He came while I was…under…like – half asleep or something – I don't even remember. And he was talking to me…and somewhere along the line…he asked me how I felt about him. And I…" he paused, and looked resignedly at his lap. "I said some things."

"What did you say?"

Kiba visibly hesitated. "That…that I was being punished." he said, his voice sounding strained. "That I thought someone was punishing me for being with him. And that I've been confused and that he's been taking advantage of me."

Naruto blinked, sitting up and staring at his friend. That was…a bit out of left field. He thought for sure that the two of them were in love. "Do you believe any of that?" he asked carefully.

Kiba didn't answer for a while. "I was barely _conscious_ when I said it." He whispered, sounding devastated. "I wasn't thinking at all. You need…_effort_ to lie, you know…And what I said…needed no effort at all…" he trailed off, looking to the left and away from Naruto completely.

"Kiba—"

"What if," Kiba interrupted, sounding sad, "what if love isn't enough? What if…after all of this…I die and I…"

"And you what?"

"I don't know. Fuck, I don't know anything." Kiba took both hands to the sides of his head. "And that dream I had…_God_."

"What was _in_ the dream, Kiba?" Naruto asked, finally letting his frustration into his voice.

"I don't know. I was…somewhere. Floating somewhere. Like if I was on a bed, I couldn't feel it. And someone was near me. _Telling_ me things. Like always, there's someone telling me things—"

"Who's telling you those things?"

"I don't know." Kiba half-shouted, looking at Naruto angrily. "Most of it I don't even remember. All I remember is feeling like dying. Like killing myself. A-and someone was telling me a sad story. I don't know who it is. But they're always telling me a story, and it's always…sad. And that time…it was about a boy and—" he stopped, looking away from the blonde again and closing his eyes. "A sad story about a boy who…I don't know, Naruto _I don't know_. It was just a sad story. And I don't know why but it made me feel like everything is for nothing. All this pain and suffering …and love? That…Does it really exist?"

"O-of course it does. You and Shino—"

"Forget me and Shino!" Kiba shouted, raising his voice. "It's probably over between us anyway…after what I…" he closed his eyes, his hands never leaving his face. "Why are we even alive, Naruto?" he whispered. "What have we done to deserve this life?"

"What the hell is wrong with you, Kiba?" Naruto asked, putting a hand on his back again. "You never talk like this—"

"It was that damned dream!" Kiba shouted, pulling away from Naruto's touch. "I can't remember why it made me feel so sad. Why does it make me feel so sad? That little boy, stuck in his room…"

"Kiba what are you talking about?"

Kiba only shook his head, and began rocking back and forth. "The little boy…stuck in there all by himself…in a room with no windows…no sunlight. Little boy can't sleep, he's afraid of the dark, and they won't give him a night light – why won't they give him a night light?"

"Kiba?"

"Shhh, it's okay little boy. Poor little boy," he mumbled to himself. "It's okay…shhh…you don't have to cry anymore."

"Kiba!" Naruto cried, standing up, and taking both of his friend's shoulders. "Kiba talk to me; you're scaring the shit out of me – come on."

"Shhh…" Kiba continued to mumble to himself. His eyes were open and staring at the sheets on his lap. "It's okay…it's okay…it's okay…."

Naruto could just stand there, helpless. "Kiba?" he whispered weakly. Was it really drugs making him this way…or was his friend going crazy? His friend continued to rock back and forth, mumbling something about a kid with no windows and no lights. Should he get the nurse? He thought. Would they even be able to help? Frustrated with his helplessness, he shook Kiba on one shoulder. "_Kiba_."

Kiba didn't reply, but his mumbling and rocking stopped. He seemed to stiffen somehow. It was like Naruto's touch shocked him out of something. Finally, after several moments, something seemed to shake out of him, and his hands fell from his face.

"Kiba?" Naruto asked tentatively, crouching so his friend could see his face.

Kiba leaned back in his bed, but never looked at the blonde. "I'm so tired, Naruto." He murmured, sounding genuinely fatigued. "I think I'll sleep now."

Naruto made an incredulous sound, and watched as his friend adjusted himself in his bed, a bit of pain passing through his face now and then, before he was finally lying down comfortably.

"Kiba…" Naruto repeated, at a loss for words.

"Mmnn…" Kiba moaned, his eyes closing.

Naruto blinked. Watching Kiba's face relax. He felt defeated. Kiba was _not_ okay. Everyone around him was just…not okay. He stood up, his eyes dim. Why was everything around him crumbling? He'd had to worry about Kiba's physical health and now he had to worry about his mental health too? Naruto couldn't help but think that it was his fault. He shouldn't have gone back to the Hotel. He should have found something else and kept all of his friends away from him.

He took a look at the clock in front of the room. He had overstayed his visit by about fifteen minutes. It was about time he found Sai and headed out.

He gave his friend a final forlorn look, face grimacing lightly at the troubled look on Kiba's resting face. But what would grimacing do? He thought bitterly, stepping back from the bed. Nothing. He would visit another time, but he had to go now. He turned to leave, making his way towards the door.

"Naruto."

Said blonde turned around, startled for a moment. But Kiba's eyes were closed, only his mouth was moving, murmuring something.

"What?" he asked, stepping closer.

"Don't…let him…"

Naruto stepped up until he was at Kiba's side again, and leaning his ear near the brunette's mouth.

"D…let him…sp…k…" came the faint whisper-mumbled word, and Naruto had to lean closer still, and strain his ears.

"_What_?"

Kiba mumbled it again, and Naruto stilled, staring at his friend for long moments before blinking. He couldn't have heard right.

Because it almost sounded like Kiba said _Don't let him speak against the sun_.

But that was impossible.

Because…

Because it was impossible.

Naruto stepped back from his friend, his eyes narrowing at his friend's face, before he shook his head. "Feel better, buddy." Was the resigned thing he said, before he moved away from the bed, and once again made his way out.

* * *

Part VI

"So what did they say was wrong with you?" That was Naruto, leaning back into the passenger seat of Sai's car.

They were coming back from his apartment, with one box filled with things he thought would come in handy while he stayed with the officer. This was the first real conversation he was attempting since they got into the car. All the others consisted of telling the still-out-of-it Sai a shorter route to his apartment, and making rhetorical comments to the mess in his house.

And it be honest, it wasn't really a mess per say. When Naruto thought about it, it was that he really didn't have a lot of things to mess up. Things had been moved around – like the little furniture he had, but other than that, the worst he could complain about was the way they ransacked his kitchen cabinets and put his ramen noodle cups back in the wrong place. Also, there was a strange line and tear on his wall that he didn't really understand until Sai told him that they were checking for hearing bugs and mikes behind the off-white wallpaper the apartment came with.

But other than that, the ransack Sai spoke of was over-exaggerated. They searched his house, and they left. Simple as that. They were going back to the Momochi Department. Sai said they would probably have to go everyday for a while, so Haku could see how the arrangements were going and so the department would have tabs on their whereabouts for the time being.

And now, after countless thoughts of worrying about Kiba and just everything in general, Naruto was attempting conversation with the mostly quiet police officer, who still seemed blasé about everything despite having been to the hospital.

Sai didn't take his eyes off the road, and said nothing for a long time, which made the blonde think he was ignoring him.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sai spoke, "They said I'm in a state of shock."

"State of shock? From what? Nothing's happened since this morning…" he paused then, eyes widening a bit. "Did…something happen between you and that guy?"

Sai infuriatingly took another few minutes to answer the question. "Maybe." Was the simple answer he gave, and Naruto had to sigh.

"Yeah, well you were pretty excited to have him over, I'll tell you that. Sorry it didn't go well, I guess." He said, shrugging and looking at the road ahead.

"Excited…" Sai repeated softly, making Naruto look at him.

"Sai," he started carefully. "Did that guy…did he hurt you? This morning…I saw bruises…"

What looked like thought passed through the man's face, and when he stopped at a red light he turned to Naruto to speak, his eyes looking gloomy. "He was angry."

"Angry at what?"

"At me." Sai replied, looking back on the road. "For not feeling anything."

"For not…what? I don't get it." Naruto sat up in his chair, and glared at the man. "And…are you saying that guy _did_ hit you? Sai—"

"He could tell." The officer said, driving again when the light turned green. "He could tell I was faking it."

Naruto paused, the anger he was beginning to feel subsiding a bit. "Faking it? Faking what?"

Sai, again, took his time to answer. "I can't feel anything." He said finally. "Nothing real. And he could tell."

"…"

"I have…" the policeman began, and his voice was offhanded, as if his hesitation wasn't due to fear, but boredom. "A disorder." He said disorder like it was a foreign thing, something he was still trying to get used to.

Naruto didn't know what to make of the sudden information he was getting. His mind was still reeling from the fact that the enormous man that the blonde had _not liked at all_, actually hit Sai. And now he was hearing that the man had some kind of…disorder? "What is it?" His voice was tentative.

"Personality…dysfunction. Schizoid."

Naruto shook his head. "Dysfunction schizoid what?" he asked incoherently. "Like…schizophrenia?"

"No." was all Sai offered.

Naruto waited for the man to add more, but he said nothing. Naruto didn't push it, instead moving on to what mattered to him. "Don't let people hit you, Sai. Holy shit. Why didn't you put your gun on him or something?" he ranted on without looking at the policeman, talking about assholes, and bullies in general. "Next time you see him just point him out, I'll knock him out, jeez."

"Why?"

Naruto blinked, not expecting a response from the man. "Uhm, because he messed you up?" he offered. "Why else?"

"We are not friends."

"That's 'because until today you had a nasty attitude." Naruto responded easily.

"Attitude…"

"Why do you do that? As if I said something weird…" he trailed off, looking at the window. He really didn't understand this man. "I'll tell you what, though." He said. "Stop being such a dick about things, and yeah, we can totally be friends."

There was silence in the car for several moments after that. And surprisingly it was Sai who spoke again. "Friends?"

"Mmm."

Sai seemed to really think about it. "Can we have sex?"

"_What_." wasn't what Naruto said, but it was written in his face, what with the way his mouth dropped to his lap, and the way his eyes looked at Sai in horror.

Sai blinked at the blonde, before looking back at the road. "You said you would be my friend…"

When Naruto picked his jaw up from the floor, he shouted, "That not what friends are for, what the _hell_, Sai!? _What_? Who told you this? What the hell is a dysfunctional schizoid anyway, jeez." He turned to look at the road ahead, scowling and feeling flustered. Sai really was weird, he thought. He'd thought he was just a weird twat before but now the man was just a strange dysfunctional…weirdo.

"Ha,"

Naruto raised an eyebrow when he saw the side Sai's face. Hmm. He was realizing that he'd never seen that particular expression on the man's face before. "You should smile more often Sai." He said simply, crossing his arms and looking at the road again. He could feel the policeman looking at him, but he ignored it, feeling a bit of red come to his cheeks. Damn it, it was weird giving a man compliments. First a gay bar, then brushing Kiba's hair back, and now telling Sai of all people that he had a nice smile. Naruto really needed to get a good night's sleep or he'll go crazy.

"You do too." Was the reply the blonde received, several minutes later, and for a moment he didn't even know what Sai was talking about.

Finally. "Oh…right. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks."

Naruto cursed inwardly.

_This is so awkward._

* * *

Part VII

This time when they went into the Momochi Department Naruto wasn't patted down or searched. The large man who'd seen him and Obito inside last time nodded when he and Sai walked into the department, and told them that "the others" were waiting for them in a room number that he couldn't remember now, but Sai seemed to know well. They were walking there now, quickly, because Sai had received an urgent message of some sort. Naruto hadn't understood most of what had come out of a radio-like transceiver hooked onto the rings of one Sai's heat exhausts in the car. It was just asking Sai to hurry the hell up and that it was Code 99 or something or other.

The room they entered now had a large window on the door, so even before they were inside he could tell that there were quite a few people inside.

"Naruto!"

Naruto started badly when something green came at him from the side. When he took a step back he saw that it was only the detective – Lee – who'd been standing right by the door. The man extended a hand at him, that Naruto took carefully, waiting for the crushingness of it that the handshake had been last time. Only it didn't come. The handshake was light, and when Naruto opened his eyes – he didn't even realize he'd braced them shut – he saw the hyper detective looking at him with solemn, sad, pitying? eyes.

Naruto blinked. "What's…going on?" he turned to face the rest of the people in the room, and found Haku, standing in the corner with, Naruto squinted, yes that was a woman's suit she was wearing. The cut was distinctly feminine. Everything about her was feminine, he thought, shaking his head. Casually standing next to her – er – him, was…

Well a monster, Naruto thought twitching. The man was like six foot four, and there was no mistake about it, he was glaring at Naruto with hard, small, and beady eyes. His skin was a bronze color, almost like a Brazilian tone except for the strange and almost…graying hue to it. Or maybe that was just the strain of muscles of his giant arms causing that hue, Naruto thought, staring at the massive things. The man's arms was the only skin he could see on the man beside his face.

Everyone else was people he'd never seen before. Except one. The Hyuuga girl sat on a short table with two other men. A small laptop was in front of her, and She was looking at Naruto too, with weary eyes. In fact everyone was looking at Naruto like they had to be careful with something.

"Naruto-san," It was Haku who began speaking. "I think you should take a seat." She gestured towards the chair in front of Hinata.

Naruto hesitated. "Erm…Yeah. Okay." He said lamely, walking forwards and taking the chair. "So…what is this about," he asked carefully, looking at Haku, who chose to stay standing. To his surprise it was the large man next to Haku who spoke.

"You're being watched, kid." Said the man, and his voice matched his body – a deep and rumbling thing, almost like a growl.

Naruto blinked. "Uh…well…I'm under surveillance so…"

"What Zabuza is trying to say," Haku said, looking at Naruto with sad eyes, "Hinata finally finished decoding Shikamaru's computer and…well…" she paused, seemingly at a loss for words, and Naruto felt his heart stutter for a moment.

These people were really freaking him out. "Can someone please just tell me what's going on?"

"Two things," said the big man – the Zabuza person, it seemed. "The shit we found on the kid's computer, and the letter we got today. Addressed to Sai's mailbox," he said nodding at Sai who was standing a little behind Naruto, "but signed to you." he finished, looking back at the blonde.

"A letter." Naruto's fingers dug into the table. His breath was coming heavy now. "From…wh-who's it from?"

"We don't know yet." Haku said, shaking her head. "We wanted to wait until you were here to open the letter. But," she added, "we have a…pretty good idea. The handwriting on the envelope is the same as the letters we found in Shikamaru's apartment. The letters from Gaara."

Naruto shut his eyes.

"Hinata?" asked Haku.

The woman made a soft sound, before she took something from the keyboard of the laptop she had in front of her and slid it towards Naruto. It was a small envelope. Plain. Simple.

_Naruto_.

The handwriting was sickeningly neat, and Naruto felt himself shut down somewhere. There was no mistake about it. It was the handwriting he'd seen in the letter he'd gotten in that box. The letter from Gaara.

He didn't make a move to touch the letter. He only looked at it, eyes blinking rapidly, and breath coming out heavy.

"Naruto-san," and that was Hinata, making the blonde look up. She offered him a smile that didn't reach her eyes, and looked down so her hair shielded her eyes. "I broke through to the Journal file in Nara-san's computer, and…" she hesitated, before she turned the laptop around so Naruto could see the screen.

"There was folder labeled video." she continued, "a-and a-as you can see…"

Naruto didn't know if Hinata stopped talking or if his mind drowned her out. Either way he couldn't hear her. He looked at the so-called files on the computer, his eyes going wider as his they scrolled down the page.

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.11._

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.19._

_Naruto Uzumaki. 02.28._

_Naruto__…_

_Naruto__…_

"Wh-at is this?" he asked, his voice breaking. "My name and…these are…these are videos?" he asked incredulously. "And they were on Shikamaru's…what?" he shook his head, his mind reeling. His hands reached up to the pad on the laptop, not even asking to do so and maneuvered the arrow until he clicked the first video.

He only waited a moment before another window opened, with a small waiting wheel spinning for a few seconds before an image popped out. The quality was bad for the first few moments, with something like white noise coming out of the laptop, before everything seemed to focus.

Naruto's hand shook. He could see himself standing across a street of some sort, a backpack on his back and earphones in his ear. He was just…minding his own business and a camera was watching him cross the street—

And that backpack. He'd thrown it away ages ago—

"W-when was this taken?" he asked, looking at Hinata, his eyes wide.

"The first video dates back to mid February of 2012," Hinata replied, eyes sad.

Naruto's mouth opened, and his mouth let out odd wordless and pathetic noises before he exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. "_2012_?" he asked, helplessly. "_February_? What? I don't, I don't—"

"Breathe, Naruto-san," and that was a Haku coming up behind him, and putting hand on his shoulder. "I understand that this information might be a bit shocking, but you need to hold it together for your own sake."

"H-hold it _togeth_—" Naruto stopped talking, the shock taking over him again. He put his head into his hands, to wait for his head to stop spinning. To his surprise the people in the room let him do so, and Haku's soothing hands to his back seemed to say, 'It's all right, and we understand.' Finally Naruto picked his head up, and stared hard at Hinata.

"The videos." He started, his voice firm, "did you watch them?"

Hinata nodded her head, not looking ashamed but something close to it. "I had to."

"Were…were they all like the first one? Did someone just film me walking in the streets and—"

"No," the woman stared at the table in front of her. "There were…clips of you coming out of your home in the Autumn Estates. There were…there were clips of you inside of that house. Eating, cleaning, s-sleeping."

Naruto shut his eyes. Clips of him in his house. In his _house_. _Sleeping_.

"I just don't understand what's going on," he said, and his voice was thick. "What the hell, is going on?" he asked, sitting up and looking at everyone. "Who's been…who's been watching me?"

"I've come up with an explanation, if you would permit me to speak, Naruto," the detective said, coming forwards so he was in front of the blonde. "I believe that the fact that these videos were found in Shikamaru's computer speaks volumes." The man raised a fist and looked at the blonde with hard determined eyes.

Naruto's mind was too out of it to wonder why the man was speaking like he was making a speech, or dictating an essay.

"Shikamaru must have been the one taking the videos and saving them for some reason. My guess is that they have something to do with Gaara—"

"Yes, but what does he want with the kid? We searched his house, we asked his old man and woman questions, Hinata's done a full search of his entire family and none of it adds up. Who is he to Gaara Sabaku?" said a man in the room that Naruto didn't recognize.

"Naruto, is there anything you'd like to tell us?" Haku asked, walking around so he was in front of him again. "I understand that Gaara works in mysterious ways, but I feel like there are still a few holes that need to be patched up. Holes that only you can patch up."

Naruto shook his head. "I…I'm just confused as you are," he said lamely. "I just…" he paused, thinking back. Wait, he thought to himself. There…there were things…Naruto hesitated, looking at the group before him. They certainly didn't carry the air that the Hatake Department did…but did that mean he could trust them? Last time he mentioned it Masashi and Shikamaru laughed at him. For different reasons but it was laughter nonetheless.

Naruto braced himself. "I…that night Gaara and I met for the first time. In that alley," he began. He saw the entire group of men and women shift to him, expectant. Naruto looked at the table in front of him, his hands shaking lightly. "He…he said he knew me," he whispered. "H-he said that he knew me from somewhere. I don't know what he was talking about…but he acted like…I don't know. He acted like he knew who I was, and…" he hesitated, thinking of how he should word the next part. "He was like…against me." he settled for, and he could feel his face heat up. "Against me and like…m-_moving_ and I just,"

Naruto shook his head. No, he told himself. He wasn't ready to tell them the details of that yet. "He told me," he said, changing the subject, "that I would be the one to kill him. Inevitably, he said. Th-that he saw himself dying at my hands, and that he was…I don't know, excited for it…Then he told me to give him my tongue, and he wouldn't speak against the sun. I don't know." he ended it there, and continued to look down at the table, fearful at what he might see on he faces of the crowd before him.

"Speak against the sun…" said a voice. "Like in the letter."

"This…might be a game, then."

Naruto looked up and stared at the detective who'd been the one to say that. "A game?"

"Yes…" the man said slowly, looking contemplative. "What you said makes it seem like Gaara already knows what's going to happen – he's playing before the inevitable happens."

Naruto saw Haku shake his head. "I'm not so sure "game" is the word we're looking for here. It seems to me that he's…prolonging what he said – inevitable?" he asked, looking at Naruto.

Naruto nodded his head.

"Right then." Haku said. "And," the man continued tentatively, "you said he…moved against you?" he asked. "I'm sorry but…sexually?"

Everyone turned to look at Naruto again. The blonde knew his face was red once more. "I-I don't know." He said lamely. "I just…I don't know. "But," he added, looking away, "He…he bit my neck…when I was at my grandparent's house."

The group stared at him.

"Bit your neck?" Haku asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

Everyone looked at each other.

It was laughter from Zabuza that brought everyone out of it. "There's one mystery solved." He said, leaning back against the wall and not looking at anyone in particular. "Obviously Sabaku's got a thing for the kid."

Naruto blinked. "A thing?" he asked.

"Yeah, a thing." The man repeated. "I don't care much to know the details of that thing. But the way I see it," he turned his eyes to Naruto, and even as he was speaking casually the look he gave Naruto was piercing and scary. "That damned note, letter – whatever. Speak against the sun? It's got something to do with that inevitability."

"That's exactly what I was thinking Chief!" exclaimed Lee, looking genuinely excited. "The phrase speaking against the sun meant speaking against facts, or God in the past. In this case I think we can use it to mean the inevitability of his death!"

Naruto shook his head, confused. "What? I don't understand,"

Lee turned to him fast enough that the blonde had to sit back. "Give me your tongue, and I shall not speak against the sun – give me your tongue and I shall not fight the inevitable. In this case his inevitable death!"

"Then what does he mean by giving him his tongue?" asked someone else.

All eyes were on Naruto again.

"Well," started Haku softly. "Sabaku…has been showing sexual interest. So perhaps…a kiss?"

Naruto's face fell. "That's…not possible…" he trailed off, remembering when Iruka said the same thing. But his landlord had disregarded it quickly. These people were seriously considering it.

"We don't really have time to convince you of anything," said Zabuza pushing himself off the wall, and walking to where Naruto was sitting. "What we really want, what everyone's here for, is for you to read that letter." He pointed to said letter with an index finger so long and massive Naruto gulped. How could someone as petite as Haku be with a man like this?

"Yes, the letter Naruto." said Lee, nodding. "We have waited long enough."

"I also think that Sabaku wanted us to read it," Haku said. "Otherwise why would he sent it to this police department of all places? And we checked with the other stations, and no one else got this letter."

"Gaara must have known he would be here." One of the others said.

Haku nodded. "But he would have probably found a way to send it to him privately if he wanted to. Not here, where all mail is reviewed by multiple people before we even give it to our officials."

Naruto bit the inside of his mouth as the people around him spoke. He looked down at the letter, his hands shaking a bit. How could something as simple as a letter look so threatening? How would this letter change Naruto's life this time? Would another person be shot? Would Naruto go crazy again, all because of something a letter said?

"Okay." He said, and he was glad that at least his voice didn't match his trembling hands.

The conversations died out, and again everyone centered on him.

Naruto took the envelope into his hands, and held for a moment, surprised when it had a bit of weight to it. When he tore it open, it was to avoid the letter, but he was surprised when tilting it a bit caused two things to fall out of it. Everyone seemed to catch their breaths when that happened, and Naruto, his hands still shaking, took the things that fell out. One was a photograph. The other a folded sheet of paper.

"I-it's a picture." He started, looking at the photo. "It's a house…" He squinted at the photograph. It was a sepia color with wrinkles around the colors. The house looked small and a little shabby, with a dark porch where someone stood in the shadows. Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit more, but still couldn't make the person out. He handed the photo to Haku.

"The letter, Naruto." Urged Lee.

Naruto nodded, turning to said letter, and unfolding it. Again, only a few lines graced the small paper. His eyes scanned the thing wearily, and if eyeballs could tremble, then he'd bet his were. The handwriting was like his name on the envelope. A district cursive, straight and skinny. Naruto read.

_Cold foreigner, laying in pieces and striking the boards of wooden flesh; as time turns inside out you'll not see the allemande Dead Fowl Dead but the old __**V**__eined __**H**__olt __**S**__ta__**ins **__of my imaginary demon. Impulses controlled, but ill-fated. Blue comes but red will leave the stench and soak timber floors before the sunrise. Rarity swallows the sky as fear will swallow the angel with the golden halo. And I will wait for him to come. And I will leave him with the sunrise._

_Gaara._

Naruto shut his eyes.

_The angel with the golden Halo_. The blonde shivered. That was him. He knew it was him. Fear would swallow him? Naruto felt like he should laugh. He wanted to say that of course he'd be scared out of his mind. And Gaara was waiting for him? He was sure that was what the letter was saying.

"I-it is from Gaara." He said. And there was a shuffling around the room, murmuring, before Haku was behind him again and reading the letter aloud.

It sounded even creepier when Naruto listened to the words outside of his head. There was something so…eerie about the way Gaara wrote things, even if he couldn't understand most of what was being said.

"Lee…" Haku started, "What do you make of this?"

When the blonde turned to look at Lee, he had a hand to his chin and was glaring hard at the floor in thought. "He's waiting…" he said to himself. "It's obvious that he wants us to go to the house in the photograph. But why? Naruto may I see the letter?"

Naruto handed it over, and watched as the detective brought it so close to his face he had to wonder if the man wore glasses.

"Why are these capitalized?" the man murmured. "Dead Fowl Dead, Veined Holt Stains? And some of the letters have been bolded."

"Forget why they're capitalized. What do they even mean?" asked Zabuza coming forwards to look at the piece of parchment.

There was silence around the room.

"Wait," someone said, and all eyes turned to Hinata, who was looking at the photograph from her position across Naruto's chair. "I recognize…" she paused, and narrowed her eyes for a moment before – "It's Sabaku's house." She said suddenly, looking up at everyone. "Suna Kaguretown on the southern border of Mushroom."

There was murmuring all around, and Naruto took the picture from Hinata to look at it again. "She's right…" he whispered. "On the news…they showed this picture on the news – that time they found out about Yashamaru."

"So Gaara wants us to go to the house?" asked someone.

Lee was the one who answered, "That has to be it. Or else why send the picture?"

Another round of murmuring, before Zabuza raised a hand so long and large that everyone stopped talking. The man had his eyes closed, and seemed to be pondering as his hand stayed in the air. "All right." he said finally. "We'll go to the house. But I need to make sure that my men are safe." He put his hand down and opened his eyes to stare harshly at everyone. "We know the mistakes Hatake made. We need to make sure everything is all right before we go there; the whole place might be bombed for all we know." He paused for a moment, and glared at the floor. "We send two officers today to scout the place out and if they find anything—"

"Hold on." Haku said, interrupting his husband. "Two officers of what rank? Because scouters are usually newbies and since this is a Gaara case—"

"Those newbies knew the job description; if they get killed it's—"

"Zabuza," Haku said, looking scandalized at his husband. "You know very well that this is different —"

"Haku is right, Zabuza-san," Lee interjected, looking almost like he wanted to protect the smaller man. "We all know the job description, but since this is Gaara…and all those people were killed in the 1313 incident, it's better that we should send more experienced—"

"All right then we'll send half and half. Two noobs, and two of the higher ups if it matters so much."

"Wait," Naruto called, interrupting the chief when it looked like he was going to speak. "What about me?"

Everyone looked at him. Naruto glared back, more out of nervousness than indignation.

"Well?" he urged. "What about me? I mean, I have to go too…"

Haku squinted at him. "Why on earth would we allow you to be caught up in a mess like this?" he asked incredulously. "Sabaku is a dangerous criminal and letting a civilian follow us into one of his possible traps—"

"Yeah, but he obviously wants me there." Naruto said, cutting her off. "In the letter, he said he would wait. For me."

"If that's the case, then there's all the more reason to keep you as far away from that house as possible." Zabuza replied, glaring at the blonde. Although Naruto thought that perhaps he couldn't help the glare. "We're supposed to be protecting you. Our men are going to risk their lives to protect you and whoever else Sabaku might hurt. Bringing you with us would defeat the purpose."

Naruto paused, trying to find a way to reason with the chief without sounding crazy. He knew that it was strange that he should have to go with them, but he knew that the only way to solve this long continuous mystery of what the hell Gaara wanted to do with him, and the rest of Mushroom was if he saw Gaara and…well he didn't know what would happen if he saw Gaara again, but he knew it would bring answers somehow.

He tried to relay the thoughts in his head to the group in the room with him.

"That doesn't make any sense," Zabuza replied, when he was finished. "How would you being there bring us any closer to solving a mystery? All we want to do is catch him and put him away; kill him if we have to. We don't need to know his plans if he's caught."

Naruto opened his mouth, but nothing coherent would come out of it. "But…"

"What I think Naruto is trying to say," started Haku, looking at the blonde, "is that we might not even be able to get close to catching Sabaku if he isn't there. Is that right, Naruto?"

"Yeah." Naruto responded lamely. "I don't want to sound like some kind of big shot or anything. I'm saying this because I want to help. I know that I have something to do with this – I don't know why, or how, but I know I do. And I'm going to try not to run away from it anymore. And I don't want to be pushed away from this either."

When no one said anything for a while, Naruto swallowed. "I want to help." He repeated lamely. "And I know you guys need my help."

Zabuza huffed once, and shook his head. "If you say so kid. It's your funeral."

"On the contrary," Lee said, looking at the chief. "Naruto-san has been in Sabaku's presence twice and is still alive. That is more than we can say for…anyone really."

Zabuza shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say," he said, disregarding the information. "Just know that your death, or harm is on you, Uzumaki. My team can only protect those who want to be protected and the fact that you're going to come along jeopardizes that – know that."

"I understand." Naruto said, quietly. And there was still fear in him, knowing that the he was going somewhere Gaara was probably expecting him – but it wasn't the fear of death. He realized now that perhaps Gaara wasn't there to kill him. Instead Naruto just feared the man's presence in general. The air the redhead had. His eyes.

Naruto closed his own, thinking about those bright orbs, surrounded by dark God-knows-what.

Wait, wait." said someone in the crowd. "Isn't doing what Gaara wants exactly what we don't want to do? He said in the letter that he was waiting for him but…shouldn't we just forget about the house all together and just let Sabaku have no chance to harm anyone?"

"If Sabaku's objective is to harm someone than someone will be harmed." countered Haku. "That's what we've heard so far from all the files. Gaara knows what's going to happen before it happens – apparently – and anything he wants done will get done whether or not we decide to follow his rules or not." He looked at his husband then, crossing his arms. "It's best that we go into this, because it'll be the only way of moving forewards and perhaps catching him…"

There was silence in the room once more, save for a few murmurings.

It was Zabuza who broke the silence. "Let's get some officers from the Hatake department to go on this mission; those fools are expendable." Haku surprised Naruto by hitting the other chief in the arm. "Then we have our men," Zabuza continued, un-phased, "Sai you know you're one of them, and detective , you'll be there too. I'll assign another two to this mission later on in the day. For now, dismissed. I want everyone out of my sight."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Part One Word Count:** 19,978 words.**

These are the first seven parts – the next chapter will be posted tonight! And it is LONGER than this chapter is. I am SO SORRY for the long wait.


	16. Fear Swallows Blonde Angels Part VIII-X

**The Light in the Fifth Floor Bedroom**

**Warnings: **Things become a bit inappropriate, but I feel like people will have more of a problem with how quickly things escalate without much warning.

Chapter Sixteen: _Fear Swallows Blonde Angels; Part VIII-X_

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Part VIII

They decided to wait a couple of days. Zabuza had decided to send a few scouts ahead after all, making sure that the small Suna home wasn't rigged with bombs or things of the like. But Sai told Naruto that they came back with reports that there was nothing in the house but old wood, peeling walls, and an old television. There wasn't much furniture and no one there. If there was anything they had to look out for it hadn't been installed yet.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the hands that rested on his lap. The chair he sat on was uncomfortable – but he expected just as much from some place as uninviting as the Morino Department. He wondered why Sai, who sat next to him, didn't feel the way, or wasn't fidgeting the way he wanted to.

_Not installed yet_. Those were Naruto's own words. Gaara wouldn't expose anything he had planned until the blonde was there. He didn't know how Gaara knew, but it was true. He'd known that Zabuza's scouting team would find nothing. He didn't know what he would find when they all went there again tomorrow, but he knew it would be something more than the nothingness that the scouters found yesterday. Because Gaara knew. He always knew.

The skip in Naruto's heart had to do with more things than just the thought of Gaara though. Today he was going to visit someone. Someone who he'd left on bad terms the time he'd seen her last.

"I pulled a few strings." Haku had told him the day before, after the meeting. "Ibiki wasn't happy, but we both knew there wouldn't be any real harm to it. She was being held in one of their cells, but she'd been moved a private room due to her…deteriorating condition."

"Deteriorating…"

"She isn't well, Naruto." Haku had told him gravely. "She isn't well."

"What's wrong with her?" he'd asked.

"She goes up and down. She's erratic. She's unstable. You never know what she's talking about."

So Naruto sat there, in an uncomfortable chair at the Morino Department, trying to think of what Haku had said. What could the chief have possibly meant by _deteriorating_? It was such a scary word; as if Sakura was peeling or melting into an almost non-human mass. He imagined pieces of her fading or drifting away in the wind – only less poetically, less beautifully than he would have warranted that drift or fade given that the word was _deterioration_ – neither of the other…euphemisms.

The blonde closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead once more with two shaking fingers. He couldn't even complain about the time that was passing, and how long they were making him wait there. It probably wasn't more than seven minutes, but it was enough for someone in a rush to become impatient. But him? No. He thought he needed his time. His bearings, he thought, were probably already gathered but now he thought that this was the chance to secure them, to prepare himself for anything that might come.

Naruto was always apt to feeling the pain of possibly unlikable future events in his chest. Well that pain had begun as soon as Haku told him that he would be able to see Sakura, and had only increased since then. It was taking a lot out of him not to just run away, but…

But he'd faced Gaara before. Facing Sakura would be nothing. It would be nothing at all.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The blonde started, looking up from his hands and staring at the man who called out to him. It wasn't Ibiki, who'd been there to greet him with a frown when he first came, but another man who looked just as uninviting.

"Haruno Sakura is able to see you now."

Naruto wondered if they had to prepare her or something, and stood up from the chair. Sai followed suit, but the man put a palm out towards him.

"Only Uzumaki," he said, nodding to the pale policeman. "You'll have to wait out here."

Sai didn't complain, only sat back down in the chair. He offered nothing to Naruto as the blonde walked away with the man, and Naruto couldn't help but think how Shikamaru or even Obito would have probably offered him a good luck, or – something.

He was led down a long hallway, and passed a few cell doors. The set up of this department was completely different than Hatake's and Momochi's. Everything about it was brick and cells – cells with people in them. The Morino branch was like a place for holding criminals, while the Momochi branch was for investigating criminals, and the Hatake branch…maybe for attempting to apprehend criminals. Naruto didn't know, and for now he couldn't care, because the man who he was following stopped at a door and was opening it for Naruto to step inside before him.

"You have fifteen minutes with her, but that time will be cut short if I see any foul conduct on any sides."

Naruto raised a hesitant eyebrow at the man. "Foul conduct?"

"Foul conduct." He repeated. "On both sides. Again, fifteen minutes. I'll be out here. Watching. Listening. No funny business. I catch everything, and you won't pull one over on me."

"I'm not trying to pull one over on anybody," Naruto muttered, stepping into the room.

"Whatever you say, son." The man said, closing the door behind Naruto. "Remember," the man said from behind the door, and Naruto was surprised that he could somehow hear the man better from behind it. "I hear everything. See everything."

Naruto would have responded once again that he wasn't there to pull any tricks, but he paused, looking at the room ahead of him. It wasn't small. But that was probably because the only things in it were a single bed, a single small table, and a small chair. The walls were a murky sort of yellow that juxtaposed strangely with the white sheets and the flimsy white gown that adorned the pink haired woman on the bed.

"Sakura…" Naruto whispered, and damn him for thinking even once that he had lost all feelings for her. All of it – or nearly all of it - was flooding back to him, spilling into him, and chocking him up. "Sakura," he repeated, almost dashing towards the bed, but standing beside it instead of taking a seat.

Something seemed to ripple across the woman, and she sat up straight, and turned to face the blonde with dull eyes. But it seemed when she saw Naruto, something in her clicked, because her eyes suddenly went wide and a smile ripped through the corners of her mouth as she stood to pull the blonde into a crushing hug.

She exclaimed his name into his ear and held him so tightly that Naruto had no choice but to hug her back, his tears matching hers as they fell from his face.

"Sakura," he murmured into her hair, his voice sounding thick and weak. "Sakura, _I'm so sorry_."

Sakura shook her head rapidly, pulling back to look at Naruto. "Naruto." She said, her face grimacing from the effort to hold back the tears and keep the smile on her face. "You're...you're still here. You're not...He didn't take you away from me too." she put her head on his shoulder then, and put her arms around his neck. "God, just tell them to take me away from here, will you? Can you tell them that I don't belong here?" she whispered.

Naruto paused, looking at her with blinking eyes before he shook his head. "I…Sakura I'll try but…I don't think my saying anything will do anything. They...they say you aren't well."

Sakura pulled back and stared at him, her face looking devastated. For a long time she only looked at him, blinking, and squeezing his shoulders periodically with wide eyes before she did something that made Naruto pull back away from her in shock.

She screamed. A loud and inappropriate scream, like a dying woman. She pulled away from Naruto, pulling and yanking at her hair as her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Getting over his initial shock, Naruto went up to her, taking her shoulders and pulling her body to him by the shoulders, and holding her. He could only hold her for so long before, she ripped herself away, hissing at him.

"Why the fuck _not?!"_

The shout was so loud and at such a close distance that Naruto had to step away from the pink haired woman again.

"_Why not?!"_ she screamed again, adding a bit of stress to her words and swiping a hand to the side as if making an imaginary line that the blonde couldn't cross.

"S-Sakura..." Naruto started slowly, and his voice broke like a pathetic and fearful thing. "What do you—"

"Did you see it?" Sakura asked, cutting him off. And her voice was suddenly much lighter, as if she was engaging him in simple conversation, and hadn't been screaming like a banshee just moments before. "You were there weren't you? I remember you were there."

Naruto blinked. Some at the words, but mostly because of the harsh tone the woman's voice had suddenly acquired at that final part.

"See what?"

"The head, you idiot." Sakura spat, stepping forwards. "Weren't you there? Or was it just another bonehead?"

Naruto made a sound, almost like a choke of surprise. "Sakura—"

He had to pause though, when a laugh came out of Sakura's mouth, loud and sudden, like her sudden scream had been. "Did you see it?" she repeated, giggling a bit more. "Do you remember the color?" she asked, dipping her head and widening her eyes and raising her eyebrows in a way that made her look genuinely expectant. When Naruto said nothing and only stared at her, she continued. "Blue." She said simply, looking amicable for a moment before she glared at Naruto. "You always hated that color." She whispered. "You hated it and he loved it. So he started to hate it too. But you loved that other hideous color. Hideous to me because he thought was, until you said it was your favorite. Then he loved it too."

Naruto squinted at the woman then took a step back, trying to gather himself. What Sakura just said made absolutely no sense.

"Do you remember?" she asked again, her voice soft. "Isn't it ironic? Don't you think it's ironic, for him to die that way? He was always big headed. Wasn't he Naruto? Wasn't he?"

Naruto swallowed, a sadness like nothing else spearing his chest. Sakura was talking about Sasuke. Speaking about him as if he was just some stranger who died at the hands of a monster. "Sakura…you're…I know you're hurting. But—"

"It doesn't hurt anymore." Sakura said, cutting him off again. "It's healed by now." She looked at her arm, inspecting it as if looking for a scab or a scar. "It was blue like his head. His head, Naruto," her eyes dimmed, and she looked ahead, her eyes not focusing on anything in particular. "So blue, Naruto. And bright. Bright blue. Seichi's favorite color too. Blue and puffy. And big. Fat. Like a tree stump in the Konoha forest." Her arms fell to the side, and she swayed a bit on her feet, before she continued to whisper. "Sasuke told me about the Konoha forest, Naruto." She looked at him then, with low eyes, as if she revealed that she knew a secret.

"Konoha forest…" he whispered, feeling a bit of eeriness fall upon him.

"He told me." Sakura repeated. "What happened there. When you found him. When you fought him in the waterfall."

Naruto straightened himself, and put his fists to his sides.

_Oh_.

Yes he remembered the forest. And he remembered the waterfall. It was like a dream now. The day that he found Sasuke.

There used to be a line separating Northern-sect from the northern most parts of Southern-sect in a nature preserve behind the Konoha forest. It was a place most people liked to call Eastern-sect, but vocabulary like that wasn't used anymore, and the land that used to be Southern-sect belonged to the North now.

Naruto had found Sasuke there, in that nature preserve. The blonde never found out why Sasuke wanted to run away, to the south no less.

It had taken almost two months to find him. He'd travelled to almost every district. By bus, by train, by hitchhiking. He'd seen things that he probably wasn't supposed to see at his age, and his heart had still been raw from his mother seemingly despising him, and _leaving_ him—

But still he went looking for Sasuke. Because Sakura had asked him to.

It was a miracle that he heard news of Sasuke's whereabouts from someone. Who had that person been? Naruto couldn't remember...

He found Sasuke making fire under a waterfall.

They'd screamed at each other.

They'd fought each other.

It had taken the point to where they couldn't move for Naruto to finally convince the raven-haired teen to come back home.

What had followed was a very tense, and silent walk through the Konoha forest, with nothing but the sounds of their feet crunching the hard leafed ground, birds squawking at them from the trees...

Sasuke's sobs as he walked behind Naruto.

Naruto had been surprised. He'd turned around to find the bruised and battered raven haired teen biting his lip with his head downcast and squeezing his eyes shut as fat tears rolled down his cheek. And the only thing Naruto thought to do, with blood still oozing off of his forehead and lips, was walk towards his friend and hold him as he cried.

And Sasuke did cry. He cried his eyes out, without telling Naruto why. Only saying over and over again that he didn't want to go back, and that nothing was there for him back there, that he couldn't get what he wanted back there.

Sasuke had told Naruto never to tell anyone of that night. Naruto kept that promise all these years, but it seemed it was all for nothing since Sasuke told Sakura after all.

"He told me everything," Sakura whispered. "He told me how you fought, how he beat you. How you cried and he had to take you home."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"You were always a cry-baby." Sakura continued, her voice almost mocking. "Remember when you were stung by a bee? Oh how you cried—"

"Sakura why are we even talking about this? And I didn't cry—"

"And how I laughed at you," the woman continued, ignoring the blonde all together. "I was always harsh, wasn't I? It was…Sasuke who comforted you that time wasn't it…? He was the one who told you…it would be all right."

"Sakura—"

"We were so young." She whispered.

And Naruto had to dash towards her in fear when she suddenly collapsed onto the bed behind her, falling back-first and spreading her arms like an angel on the plain white sheets. Naruto thought she was going to fall to the floor, but now that she was on the bed all he could do was stand there awkwardly, watching her as she stared at the ceiling and breathed deeply.

"But he's dead now." She said, sitting up. "He's dead now. And soon I'll be dead. And maybe Seichi will be dead." She looked at the blonde then. "But not you, Naruto." She said, squinting at him. "You'll still be here. Somehow, you're always here."

Naruto could say nothing. He could only look at her, pity filling his heart and soul. Sakura was so much worse than he thought. When Haku said that she wasn't well, he knew there must have been some sort of psychological damage to seeing one's husband's dead head rolling around the floor, but he'd anticipated that damage to be inconsolable grief. He'd been ready to hold his pink-haired friend until tears stopped falling down her face but it seemed…her mind was so far gone that she was accepting the tragedy, and letting her mind wander towards the past.

"I'm so sorry you have to go through this, Sakura." He said to the woman that he knew lie inside Sakura somewhere, struggling with grief. "I'm sorry that—"

"Shhh…" The woman brought a finger to her lips, and peered at Naruto with a secretive smile. "Do you…" she scooted over on the bed, and patted the seat next her. "Do you want to hear a secret?" she whispered.

Naruto eyed the spot next to her warily, before he sat down. When he did sit, Sakura moved until their thighs were touching and turned to Naruto so that her mouth was on his ear. She licked once.

Naruto shivered but didn't pull away. He only turned to face this woman with wide eyes. Their faces were close.

Laughing again, Sakura leaned towards Naruto, until their noses were almost touching.

Naruto's breath hitched.

Another giggle from Sakura.

"Picture this," And her voice like a sultry thing that made Naruto swallow. "My honeymoon. Sasuke and I."

Naruto blinked, leaning away again, but Sakura only moved forward until their noses were less than an inch apart.

"He takes me…to the middle of nowhere." she whispers, and her eyes never left Naruto's. "A cabin. Hidden behind trees. A forest." She paused then, and her eyes seemed to dim. "Sasuke and I had never…been intimate in that way before." She continued, her voice still a breath. "He wanted…to wait. And I was…so happy…" her breath was hot against Naruto lips. "It was…so beautiful," Her eyes closed then, and she sighed out something like a moan. As if remembering, and feeling all the things she felt on that day.

When she opened her eyes she wasn't as close to the blonde anymore, and she wasn't looking at him as intensely, but with somewhat somber eyes. "And then I came." She said plainly, her eyes never leaving his. "I'd never felt pleasure like it before. There's nothing like being in the arms of someone you love, Naruto. Having someone you've loved for so long finally inside you, one with you." she sighed and, and again it was like a moan. "I came." she repeated. "_Sasuke_, I said. _Sasuke, I love you_. And then he came. Jerking inside of me and losing control of himself in a way I'd never witnessed before. And you know what he said?" She leaned forwards again, and this time their lips almost brushed in a passionless non-kiss. "_Naruto_."

Naruto froze.

Sakura leaned away from him, and smiled a thin smile. "Naruto, Naruto Naruto." Her voice was no longer a whisper.

And the blonde still sat there frozen. Not just him, but his whole being was frozen. He was frozen to the core like he would never move again.

"And it was low. So low." Sakura's voice had a dazed tone now, as if she was reciting words while being hypnotized. She even seemed to sway as she spoke, and her eyes dimmed with each word until her eyes were closed. "Sasuke was careful. He was always careful. But I heard him. I heard him say your name. Naruto, Naruto."

Naruto was struggling. His mouth was stuck in this half opened way – he couldn't open it enough to even show teeth, his body was frozen. Not even his eyes could blink.

Sasuke had….

He'd…said his name?

Finally something in the blonde broke and he whipped his head to the side so his permanently wide eyes could look at the wall instead of Sakura. Still no sound could come from his mouth. Only quick chokes that came and went, ended as soon as they began.

"He never did it again." Sakura went on. "I thought that maybe…I'd imagined it. But who imagines something like that?" Laughter again. "Sasuke never loved me." Even that statement was said lightly, offhandedly. "Not when we were dating. Not after we'd gotten married. With his dying breath he hated me. Didn't he?" She had the gall to look expectantly at Naruto.

Naruto blinked at her, his eyes wide and thoughts reeling. Too many things were going through in his mind at once. Sakura…Could it be that she was so far gone that these…these stories were made up?

"He would have hated our son too, if Seichi hadn't come out looking exactly like him. And Seichi hates me too. Sasuke made him hate me. And now Sasuke's dead and I'm stuck with the brat."

Another sound from Naruto. But still no real words.

"Are you going to take Seichi away from me too?"

Naruto stared at her.

"They'll need someone to take care of him….And it won't be enough for you to take Sasuke from me, will it? You'll want to take Seichi too." She said it calmly, as if stating an obvious fact instead of a crazy accusation.

It was the tone, more than the words that got to Naruto. A tone like a calm betrayal – as if Naruto had never….had never... "Sa-kura." And his voice broke as he spoke. "…how can you s-ay that? I…" he clenched his fists. "I _loved_ you. Sa..Sasuke…in love with me?" it sounded strange even with his tone of denial. "That's…that's n_-ot_—" he stopped, feeling inadequate and ridiculous at the same time. "That doesn't even make sens—"

Sakura screamed, and one hand came lashing at him at so fast that Naruto had to dash backwards and off the bed. "He would have married you if he could!" Her voice was ugly, and she followed him, standing up slowly and walking to him. Now they stood almost face to face, with the pink-haired woman's eyes wide and angry and...and _crazy_, Naruto thought, the aching in his heart throbbing again. Sakura was crazy.

"Sakura..."

"He only wanted you!" And here came the tears coming from Sakura's eyes as her screams began to sound like sobbing and desperate accusations. " He left so you could save him! I tried to bring him back but he wouldn't listen to me – I didn't have him then, and I don't have him now - because _he's dead_, Naruto!" her voice was like a scratching scream now, a sound that could peel the walls, and bleed her throat. Ugly sobs were racking her body, and morphing the sound of her voice so now all Naruto had to face was the wet mess of snot and tears on her face. "He's dead and you didn't save him! _You didn't save him!"_

She lashed out then, and Naruto didn't have time to pull away before she was on him, scratching his face, and pulling at his hair with wild battle cries.

"Sakura!" he shouted, too shocked to really fight back.

And he would have held her until she calmed down, he would have whispered sweet nothings into her ear until she finally stopped, but the guard that put him into the room in the first place came running into the room then, pulling the screaming woman away from him and telling Naruto that it was time for him to go.

* * *

Part IX

"You look horrible."

Naruto didn't have the energy to glare at Sai. It was about eight thirty in the night. They'd been informed at the Morino department that Sai would have to drive Naruto to their destination – Suna Kaguretown – and arrive at 8:00am sharp tomorrow. Sai told him that they would have to wake up early to get to there at that time, which was why they were getting ready to go to bed so early. Naruto knew, however, that he would be too anxious to sleep this night. He would be worrying about too many things. Thinking of too many things.

The two of them, Sai and he, had gotten along for the most part the past two days. Sai was coming back to his rude-self after the strange episode of absolute emotionlessness he had a few days prior, and Naruto learned a little bit more about the condition of the man's personality and the disorder he had. It still didn't stop him from cursing Sai out when he was being rude, but still, Naruto could stand the policeman a little better now. He wouldn't say they were friends, but they could be, given time.

"Get out of the way."

Given _a lot_ of time.

Sai pushed passed him in the bathroom, finally giving Naruto the space to brush his teeth. Naruto did so, with the toothbrush he'd taken from his house days before. When he'd done the rest of his nightly routine, he made his way to the couch that he'd slept on the past few nights.

He was surprised to find Sai there, sitting on it.

He paused for a moment, right behind said couch, before he went around it, and sat down next to the policeman. "Is there something…you need?" he asked tentatively.

Sai looked at him, his eyes passionless as usual, before he spoke. "I've been reading." He began softly. "That when making friends, you have to ask them if something is wrong if they start acting…differently…"

Naruto blinked. "Uhm…what?"

"Is something wrong?"

Naruto opened his mouth to speak. Then he closed it again, for the umpteenth time that day at a loss for words. When he found those words again, he spoke in an indignant voice. "Of course something's wrong." He murmured. "You know what we're doing tomorrow."

Sai looked at him with small eyes. "You're afraid."

"Yeah. Obviously. You should be too."

"Why?"

"Because you don't know what's going to happen."

"No one knows what's going to happen no matter what."

Naruto glared at Sai before crossing his arms and looking away like a child. "Look, can I just go to bed, now? I'm glad you're not scared, but I am, and I need to attempt as much sleep as I can before tomorrow."

"What happened when you talked to Haruno."

"What?"

"Haruno Sakura. After her you were…different."

Naruto paused, looking at the brunette, before he blinked his eyes and looked down to the floor. "Nothing important."

"What's not important?"

Naruto sighed. Was Sai really not going to let this go? He thought he liked it better when the man didn't give a damn. "I just...Sakura said some things that...have me a little...I don't know. On edge."

"What things?"

"Listen, Sai." Naruto raised a hand and shook his head, his exasperation showing. "I really don't want to talk about this, and I know I need to sleep so—"

"You should tell me if you think it has anything to do with the case."

Naruto paused. "What?"

"If she told you anything about the case. About Gaara. Anything. Morino said they weren't able to get any information out of her. "

Naruto closed his eyes. Damn. But..."What Sakura told me probably isn't true anyway. And even...even if it was I doubt it has anything to do with the case. Or with Gaara."

"What did she say?"

Naruto attempted another glare at the policeman, but it was half-hearted and fell away with another sad sigh. "She was...upset about Sasuke." he whispered, his eyes narrowing at his lap. "And she told me...that Sasuke never loved her." Naruto sat up. "Which I can believe, because Sasuke was always such a bastard to her. Such a bastard to _me_. And _yet_-"

He stopped himself when he heard his voice rising.

"And yet, what?"

Naruto scowled and turned to look at Sai. "She told me that Sasuke had been in love with me."

He waited for something in Sai's face to change - for his features to morph into some kind of shock. But Sai only stared at him. "Did you hear me?" he asked. "She said that Sasuke'd been _in love_ with me. A-and then she blamed me for not saving him. She acted like—!" Naruto growled, again trying to keep himself in check. "She acted like I hadn't been there for her _all these years_. She acted like I hadn't been in love with her for _most of my life!_ I—" He stood up angrily. "Sasuke _in love_ with me?! _Give me a break!_ It was always _her_ and Sasuke; I was always the odd one out! And she has the nerve to tell me that, _that_—" he stopped again, exhaling hard and putting his hands to his face.

"I went looking for Sasuke _for her_." he whispered hotly in his hands. "I spent a month out there. I was almost killed. And my _mo-ther_—" he had to stop again, when his throat suddenly closed as he tried to contain the smallest of sobs. "She didn't even..." his voice came out high and pathetic breath.

"What about your mother?"

"_Nothing_."

"Where is she?"

"I don't fucking know, Sai." Naruto spat. "This isn't about her. In fact, just do me a favor and just don't bring up my parents up ever again." He swiped a hand through his hair once. Twice. "You know?" he started up again, turning to look at the policeman. "Everything I did, for the longest time, was for her. All for Sakura. Looking for Sasuke, applying to that fucking job at the hotel. The only thing I'd ever done for myself was move out of my grandparent's house. And look where that got me." he spat bitterly.

"Uchiha Sasuke was in love with you."

Naruto scowled. "Sakura was lying. There's no way. Sasuke wasn't—".

"Why not?"

"Because it's impossible!" Naruto shouted, turning to glare at the policeman. "Why would he – why would _anyone_, love me?"

"Why not?"

"Fuck this." Naruto growled, collapsing back onto the couch with his arms crossed. "Can you just leave so I can go to bed?"

Sai didn't move. "It's still important. If the Uchiha really did love you—"

"He _didn't_—"

"_If_ he did." Sai said, raising a hand. "Then there's a little light to Sasuke's motives that we didn't have before. You have to tell Chief Momochi about this tomorrow."

"Uhm, _no_." Naruto replied, incredulously. "Trust me, this has nothing to do with anything. And it's not true. Sasuke wasn't...gay."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he _married Sakura_." he replied, his voice rising again. "And he'd never been...with anyone but her. Why would he do that if he was gay?"

Sai stared at him, his features unchanging. "You really are stupid aren't you?"

"Fuck you, Sai." Naruto said, giving up, and turning away. "Sasuke wasn't gay. Unless he turned gay when we were teenagers, and I know that somehow people are born that way so it couldn't have been that—"

"I wasn't born that way."

"What?"

"You know when I found out that I wasn't asexual?"

Naruto didn't answer, his face struggling between a scowl and a look of confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"When I kissed someone." Sai continued. "A boy. That's when I knew I could feel something. Even if it was only a small emotion, I felt it. And I knew it was for men. Maybe Sasuke was that way. Something happened that made him realize—"

"We're not talking about this." The blonde cut him off. "Sasuke never kissed—" Naruto paused blinking and remembering the one time in middle school when a young boy had pushed him into Sasuke—

But he shook his head, disregarding the thought. "We're not talking about this." he repeated. "Please. Let's just go to bed."

"Naruto."

The blonde froze when Sai's hand was suddenly on his leg. The policeman moved forward until they were almost as close as he and Sakura were earlier that day. "You're afraid. You're stressed."

Naruto blinked, moving his head backwards as Sai came closer.

"Do you know what cures both of those things? I read it in a book."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Sai leaned forwards too quickly for Naruto to move away, and before the blonde knew it lips were on his. Something like a muffled cry of surprise came from him, starting small, and than becoming loud as Sai pulled away with a fake smile plastered on his face.

"Sex." the man said, cheerfully.

Naruto choked. "_Wha_—"

_SMASH!_

Both men jumped off the couch and turned around.

_Silence_.

They stood there, tense, and listening for more sounds in the silence.

"Stay here." Sai said, crouching and suddenly sounding very serious as his eyes rapidly scanned the room to find the source of the crash. Naruto watched, his heart hammering in his chest, as Sai looked around and disappeared down the hallway.

What the hell was that? he thought, looking around. It was like someone threw a brick at the window, except it sounded closer. Like something had been knocked over somewhere near the living room.

Sai walked back into the living room after a minute. He was holding his gun and walking towards the door.

"What happened?" Naruto asked quietly.

"A vase was knocked down in the hallway. And a window in my room was open." Sai replied, looking outside the window of the living room with his back furtively to the wall.

"Oh." Naruto straightened himself. "Did the...wind knock the vase down?"

"No." Sai said. "The window wasn't open before. Someone was in the house."

Naruto stiffened. "What? _Who_?"

"Going to find that out." Sai said simply, carefully making his way out the door, opening it and dashing out.

Sai, wait-"

But Sai was already gone.

* * *

Part IX. II

Sai'd come back with nothing to report. If someone had been at the house, they'd been nowhere to be found.

"It was probably just a common thief." Naruto had offered, when Sai came back, but the policeman seemed on edge despite that.

"He's fast."

"Who's he?" That had been Naruto, peering at the policeman with narrowed eyes as he continued to search the living room area, his gun still at hand.

"Nothing was stolen."

"Who's _he_?"

Sai had blinked then, pausing in the middle of his living room, before his body relaxed, and he let his armed hand fall to his side.

He looked at Naruto. "We should go to bed."

And that had been the end of it.

Naruto had fallen asleep on the couch to the sounds of Sai cleaning up the broken glass in the hallway, and had woken up to Sai's morning routine at about six in the morning. Naruto had gotten ready after him, his mind heavy with what awaited him for the day. Sai had said nothing to him, offered him no words of encouragement or the likely discouraging statements he was apt give Naruto in the morning. The policeman, for the most part, was very distant, and unresponsive. When Naruto asked what was wrong, Sai'd only looked at him until the blonde was forced to look away.

He was waiting in the back seat of Sai's car now. Sai was inside the Momochi Department, going over things with the rest of the "team" as he liked to call it. He'd been waiting in said car for several minutes, troubling thoughts turning and turning in his head.

He narrowed eyes at his lap.

Sakura.

Sasuke.

_Gaara_.

Too many problems. Too many questions. The blonde would go crazy before long if things kept piling up like this.

Sai said that he would tell the others what Sakura told him yesterday and Naruto wasn't prepared for that. It would just give room for an onslaught of more questions that he didn't have the answer to, towards something he didn't even _believe_. It was enough to have a murderer pinning after him but to say that a man who'd been his best friend so long ago had been in love—

_Chi-ck_

And that was the door opening, Sai stepping into the driver's seat, and another person getting into the passengers seat.

"Good morning, Naruto!"

Detective Lee.

Naruto nodded at him, the man's energy throwing him off a little bit.

"Detective…"

The green clad man turned in his chair to look at Naruto with a thumbs up. "Thank you for volunteering to come and aid us in this mission!" he exclaimed.

Naruto tried to smile at the man but ended up nodding instead. "Yeah." He said lamely.

"I know you're afraid, Naruto-san." The detective said, his voice lowering. "And we have no idea what we're getting into, so I cannot promise that everything will be all right." he put his head down and put up a shaking fist. "But what I can promise you," he started slowly, "…is that I will do my best to protect you!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I might not look like much but I was in the military before I became a detective!"

"Uh…that sounds great." Naruto offered.

Lee beamed at him, looking genuinely pleased, before he turned back in his seat.

There was a knock on the driver's seat window that made the detective pause. The larger Momochi stood there, glaring into the car. Sai rolled down his window and Momochi's eyes went straight to Naruto in the back seat. "The rules are as follows," he started, his voice gruff. "You do nothing without our permission, you will stay in Sai's sight at all times, when we say run, you run, when we duck you duck, and you will be the last one to enter through every door."

"R-right."

"Sai you're the middle car; the Hatake team will follow behind you, and you'll follow behind our team. The count is four on four, then three more including you, then excluding one as Blondie here won't have any firearms. Lee, tell me you brought your gun this time."

"Yes, sir!"

"Right then. We're heading out." He smacked the car once and straightened to walk to his own car. Sai rolled up the window and started his car.

Lee cleared his throat. "This is going to be at least a two hour ride," the detective said, reaching over the radio. "We should listen to some music."

* * *

Part X

_I've got sunshine_…chrrich…_cloudy day_

_When it's cold outs_…crchch…_month of may_

_I'd guess you'd say_…chrch…INFERNAL PITS OF HELL…chrch

_What can make_…chrhch…_feel this way?_

_My girl, my__…_BE READY TO DIE FOR HIM…_my girl_

"Frequencies are mashing up…" That was the weary and murmured voice of Lee, whose voice had died down tremendously since they began this trip to Suna. They did not anticipate that the ride would be this long. The day started a bit dreary, and rain had to begun to fall from the sky as soon as they'd gotten on the highway. That rain continued to fall now, and all throughout the trip vehicles on the road kept cautious and didn't allow them to go more than fifty-five miles per hour.

When they'd gotten on the direct route to Suna, meaning the last leg of highway road before they could exit out and into their destination, the road had become thick and muddy with the sand that the wind carried from the side of the roads. Needless to say one had to drive very slowly in that kind of weather.

_I've got so_…chrch…_honey_, _the bees envy me_

_I've got_…chhrchh…KNIFE THROUGH YOUR HEART…crch…_in the trees_

Naruto resisted the urge to scream for Lee to turn off the damn radio already. They were officially in Suna now, and the already bleak feel of the place didn't need the clash of old music and local religious radio to add to the mood. Time and time again the instruments would give way to the obnoxious screaming of a man on the radio.

crhch…ARE YOU READY TO DIE…_my girl_

Once they'd gotten off the highway and made their way into the small town, Naruto saw that all Suna really consisted of was small rickety looking wooden houses, barely painted over, with multiple buckets outside of each house collecting rain.

_I guess_…THE END IS NOW…_say_

_What can make_…crhch DEPTHS OF HELL…_way_

_My girl, my_…CAST YOUR ENEMIES INTO THE ETERNAL FIRE…_girl_

The local radio was overpowering the music frequency now, and Naruto frowned out the window when he saw people peeking out their windows to look at them, stepping out of their porches to watch them pass with deeps scowls on their faces.

_Talkin' bout my gi_…SINNERS, THEY LITTER THE STREETS…chrch

_My girl_…DO YOU FEAR GOD crchhh…_my girl_…

_Make me feel this w_…chrch THE BLOOD OF YOUR SOUL…chch

chhrch…RIPPED TO SHREDS BY THE LIGHTENING STRIKE…_my girl_

_My girl, my g_…GOD SENDS YOUR SOUL TO HELL TO _ROT_—

"Lee," Naruto started, sighing. "Can you _please_ turn off the radio?"

"Sure thing."

Naruto sighed when silence graced the car finally. The only thing that he could hear now was the large pattering of rain onto the vehicle. "This rain…" he mumbled to himself.

"I thought for sure that it would stop once we reached Suna." Lee said from the front. "It almost never rains here…"

"We're almost there." And that was Sai, speaking for the first time since they started driving.

"How long?"

"Two minutes."

The blonde felt his heart sink a little lower into his stomach. Two minutes. Two minutes until all hell broke loose.

"We didn't find anything in the house last time we were there. Besides a few photos on the walls, and a television in the middle of the floor of a large room." Lee was sitting up in his chair stretching. "Zabuza doubts we'll see anything today, but since apparently Gaara won't reveal himself unless you're there…" he trailed off.

There were no more houses lined up side by side anymore. It was all just sand and more side and…

"Is that…"

"We're here. "

The house looked like it did in the photograph. Small and wooden with a porch that barely extended past the door.

"All the other houses are connected together, like community houses." Lee was fumbling in the front seat, probably preparing to exit the vehicle. "But this house is all by itself, separated from the others. Hinata did some research and apparently Gaara's father built the home himself, so his family life could be private from his public life. He was very popular when he was alive…"

Naruto hummed and nodded. The car stopped moving, and he supposed Sai was waiting for some kind of signal from the car ahead of him. He could see the police car Zabuza was in past the wet windshield. The red lights were blinking but it was still besides that—

Wait. The car door was opening. Zabuza was stepping out of the drivers seat. He nodded once to the car Naruto was in…No. No, he was nodding to the car behind Naruto, because suddenly men in blue were zipping by the car the blonde was in and making their way into the house in a synchronized, crouched motion. Naruto counted four men.

"There's the scouting team." Lee muttered, and he unhooked his seatbelt. "Remember to stay with Sai at all times, Naruto." He said before he opened his passenger door.

A torrent of rain came pooling in from his side, and he stepped out without an umbrella into the onslaught of water. Naruto squinted at the look of the outside for a moment, catching an unaltered view of the men cautiously stepping inside of the small home before Lee closed the door behind him.

Naruto turned to Sai. "So are we just gonna stay in this car then…?"

Sai said nothing. Naruto saw that he was staring quite steadfastly into nothingness, and his fingers were tapping non-stop at the wheel.

"Sai what's going on? You've been like this all day. Are you having one of your…weird episodes?"

Sai's fingers stopped tapping. In fact his entire body seemed to freeze. He seemed to hold his body like that, in that frozen moment, and in a soft voice he asked, "Did you dream last night?"

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Sai repeated the question, but Naruto was still as unprepared for it as he was the first time. "Uhm…I don't," he shook his head. "You mean like...nightmares? Uhh, no—?"

"I dreamt last night."

The blonde opened his mouth to say something, but all that came put was soft sounds of struggle. He didn't know what to say.

"I never dream." Sai continued, and his fist clenched and unclenched on his lap.

"Uhm...first time for everything?"

"Did you dream last night?"

Naruto paused. "You asked that already..." He replied softly.

"I know."

"Sai, you're acting strange." Naruto said, sighing and siting up. "Like, stranger than usual."

"You aren't afraid anymore."

"Of course I'm still afraid, are you kidding me?" Naruto almost scoffed. "My heart's trying to claw it's way out of my damn chest."

"But you're not running away."

"Well...of course not. I'm a part of this now. I know that if this thing with Gaara has to be settled I need to—"

"_I_ want to run away."

Another blink from Naruto. Sai was doing something with his lips. Chewing at his gums from the inside in a tentative way that was noticeable because the blonde had never seen him do it before. "You're afraid." He whispered.

Sai said nothing.

"Sai..." He started slowly. "...what did you dream about?"

A bit more silence followed, with the policeman chewing lightly at the inside of his mouth and his fists clenching and un-clenching on his lap.

Finally, "I dreamt of death." his voice was a whisper. "Death and darknes—"

Two harsh knocks on Sai's window interrupted him. It was Zabuza on the other side, leaning over with a scowl. A man was beside him, holding up an umbrella for the larger man.

Sai rolled down his window.

"This mission has turned to Code 91." He half barked so his voice could carry over the relentless sound of the rain.

Sai nodded once. "What happened?"

The chief hesitated and when he spoke again he was looking at Naruto. "The house," he began. "Someone's been in it since we were here last. There have been changes."

Naruto swallowed once. "What changes."

Again, hesitation on the chief's side. "There's a video tape player near television we found, with a video tape inside. And there's a...smell. We don't know where it's coming from."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "A smell—?"

"Anyway," Zabuza continued, cutting the blond off. "There were no devices detected on the porch or living room of the house, and the smell doesn't pick up on the scanners as harmful, so you two can come in now."

"We should stay in the car until you know for sure that everything is safe."

Zabuza looked at Sai with a glare and a raised eyebrow. "Or you could follow orders and step inside the house." He said. "Eventually blondie here will have to step in, and you need to be with him at all times."

Sai responded by shutting the car off.

"Get in there." Was all the chief said, before he stood up straight and made his way around the car, towards the small house.

Sai was taking off his seatbelt and exiting the vehicle before Naruto had a chance to gather himself, and the blonde ending up scrambling to take off his own straps and getting out of the car. The rain that fell on him was harsh, almost like tiny bullets on his shoulders. Sai stood in front of the car, staring at him with passionless eyes. Waiting.

Naruto nodded back, before he headed towards the small house.

The sand that clung to his shoes dripped and sloshed on the sole and made it difficult to walk. The blonde entertained, for a moment, the idea that this was somehow God's way of telling him to stay behind and not go through with this ridiculous idea of putting himself in harms way. But Naruto shook his head and continued on, starting up a jog and letting the bullet rain hit him for only a few moments before he found himself on the porch.

And then Naruto finally felt it.

No.

He'd felt it before. He'd been _feeling_ it for a long time.

But now.

It was like a descending. The weight fell on his shoulders, harsher than the bullet rain.

It was fear.

Naruto had to catch himself before his knees completely buckled. It was something about the wooden porch, the crooked door that stood slightly ajar in front of him. It was the fact that Gaara had walked through this porch, had entered that door and might be somewhere inside…

"You feel it now."

Naruto started, turning around quickly with a sharp intake of breath. "Sai," he breathed. He'd almost lost himself in his own little world of fear.

Sai looked at him with solemn eyes. "You feel it." He repeated, and Naruto didn't know if it was a question or a statement.

"I was always scared." He opted to say instead, his voice catching on an almost annoyed tone that he didn't mean. "It's just…really hitting me now."

"It hasn't hit you quite yet."

And Naruto had to look at the policeman strangely, because the man was standing right outside the porch, letting the rain pummel him in a way that made the blonde think he'd have a dented head by the time he stepped inside. And Sai's hair stuck to his forehead and the sides of his thin, long face and gave him the appearance of a starving animal, as his eyes stared passionlessly at him.

"What's happening to you Sai?" It was a whisper.

"It hasn't hit you quite yet."

"Yeah, you said that." Naruto swiped a hand to the side in a swift exasperation before he decided to put the hand in better use and pulled Sai into the porch. "And I don't know what the hell you're talking about…" he said stepping back so the man had more room. "I think you've—"

"It hasn't _eaten_ you yet."

Naruto paused.

Sai was looking at him as steadfastly as he stared at nothingness in the car.

"What?"

There were a few more moments of Sai simply looking into the blonde's eyes, unblinking before he stepped back once, let out a breath, and turned his head. "I'll go inside now." Was all he said, before he walked passed Naruto and made his way into the little house.

Naruto stood there, his mouth struggling for a moment as he turned to watch the policeman leave. A few seconds later he remembered that he had feet, and he followed Sai into the house, his confusion masking his fear for a moment.

The inside the house seemed to, like every place he entered, betray the outside. The first thing he saw was a large flight of stairs at the side of one wall, leading up to a dark hall. And Zabuza was right, there was a smell. Naruto just wasn't expecting it to be so foul. He coughed once, before putting his hand to his nose and squinting. "What…"

He walked passed the stairs, and made his way to where he heard the most commotion. He nodded at two policemen who stood in the hallway with their backs straight and guns raised, and made his way to where he heard Lee's voice carrying on in a muffled tone.

"…even the way things are aligned here have meaning—Naruto!"

Naruto didn't look at Lee right away. He found himself taking tentative steps into what could have been a living room, only it was a wide open space with nothing but an old and dusty looking television on the floor with an odd looking VCR beside it. The television had a long dark wire on the back that snaked to an outlet on the wall in front of him. Naruto paused when he saw that wall. There was a portrait of a young woman with skin so pale and hair so light that the contrast between her features and the black background could only be described as sharp. And the eyes on the woman. A bright green, not hidden underneath lashes, as they were so light. Naruto's mind knew before he could even really think about it.

It was Gaara's mother.

Naruto stared at the portrait. It seemed so out of place in the otherwise desolate home. Everything was bare. The walls were a kind of yellowing white – almost the color of piss – from the accumulation of time, heat, and must. How long had this house been abandoned?

"Try to breathe shallowly."

Naruto looked away from the woman to look at Lee. He was crouching on the ground where the television was, looking up at the blonde with a tentative smile. "The scanners didn't pick anything up from this smell, but just to be carefu—"

A violent crack of thunder interrupted the detective, and it seemed everyone in the room jumped. There was a small window but it was was stained so thoroughly that all Naruto could make out was the gray color of the outside.

Lee let out a small laugh when it seemed everyone's nerves fell back in place. "How fitting that weather be so dreary at a time like this!" he exclaimed. A rush of rain seemed to hit the roof of the house, and there was a creaking that Naruto didn't really understand until he looked down and saw that his toes were curling and uncurling in his shoes and causing the floor to move underneath him.

"The wood is incredibly old. Everything about this house is falling apart." As if to emphasis the detective's statement a few drops of water fell onto the creaking floor. When Naruto looked up he saw cracks on the ceiling, dripping from time to time. He wrinkled his nose. He didn't know why but the somewhat foul smell seemed to increase as more water dripped onto the floorboards.

"How is that possible?" he asked, squinting at the ceiling. "Doesn't the house have more than one floor? How can the rain…"

"That's how poor the condition of the house is." Naruto turned and found Zabuza coming into the room with one other policeman. "Upstairs is even worse. It's partially flooded up there. The ceilings and walls are falling apart, and the foundation of the house in the attic is barely holding this place together." The chief was scowling, and coming up behind Lee.

The detective stood up. "It seems we'll be lucky if the storm doesn't knock this place down!"

The fact that the detective said that statement with a smile disturbed Naruto, but he nodded anyway.

"Zabuza, Naruto," Lee started, sounding almost excited. "In fact, I'd like it if everyone was here to hear this."

Zabuza shook his head. "Negative. We need to make sure all sides of the house are covered, so if the bastard does show up, he can't sneak up on us."

Lee nodded in understanding, before he held out a piece of paper and unfolded it. "Gaara truly has a way with words!" he began. "I've been reading the note he sent you over and over again," he looked at he blonde then, "and at first it seemed nonsensical but now that we're finally here…" He moved so he was right in between Naruto and Zabuza and was sharing the paper with them.

Naruto saw that it wasn't the original copy, but something someone wrote over again, perhaps Lee, on a larger piece of paper.

"You see here when it says, 'rarity swallows the sky?'"

Naruto squinted, and nodded.

"Remember when we were talking about how it never rains in Suna?" the detective asked, sounding excited. "It makes sense then, that rarity would swallow the sky, wouldn't it?"

"Maybe, but how does that help us any?" Zabuza asked. It was obvious he was uncomfortable with how closely Lee was standing next to him.

"It doesn't end there," Lee stressed. "The highlighted letters. DFD. At first I didn't understand until I looked up the word allemande – and found that it meant German, in French."

Naruto raised a hand, as Lee was talking too quickly. "Repeat that. German and French, what?"

Lee chuckled lightly. "Allemande is a French word." He repeated. "It means German."

"So what does it meant then?" Zabuza was getting impatient.

"It's a bit embarrassing, but I didn't figure this out on my own. Hinata found a bit of the information for me, and apparently DFD is the equivalent of DVD, in German, as the V in German somehow—"

Another crack of thunder interrupted the detective and he jumped. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, now that I'm here," he continued, "this part makes sense: 'you'll not see the allemande DFD, but the VHS – do you see how those letters are also bolded? It's as if Gaara was – almost redundantly, if I may say so – telling us to expect a video cassette instead of a DVD—"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the replica of the note with narrowed eyes. "I guess it makes sense but the 'ins' in 'stains' is bolded also…" Naruto interrupted. "So it's DFD to VHSins…"

"Yes, I realize that." Lee was nodding his head. "But what I'm—"

"Wait, wait," Naruto was pulling away from Lee's side and turning to face him instead. "Why are we…" he hesitated. "What are we doing here exactly? I feel like if we just watch the video we'll see exactly what—"

"We can't rush into things like that." Zabuza was glaring at the blonde. "We know that's what you're used to with Hatake, but we don't do that here. The safety of our men is important. We haven't even identified the smell. For all we know it might be something that will be harmful once triggered by something. We don't know exactly what that is so we need to be careful."

"But you said your scanners didn't pick anything up." Naruto countered. "I think that if we just stand around here waiting, we just won't get anywhere."

"What do you suggest then?" Zabuza said, getting in Naruto's face. Or rather, bringing his chest to the blonde's face and glaring him down. "You want us to put our guns, our defenses down and gather around like a damn family to watch a video cassette?" he spat. "I don't know if you realize the gravity of the situation." His voice turned into a sort of masculine hiss. "There have been changes made to this house, which means the Sabaku bastard knew we were coming, and that every move we make, _every breath we take_, is probably being monitored and anticipated by that damn murderer. What we're trying to do, is to the best of our ability, stay safe, and avoid all of his traps." His face was centimeters from Naruto's now, and the blonde had to gulp. "If you want to sabotage all of that, and put us all in danger, by all means," he gestured towards the television.

Naruto swallowed again, before he shook his head. Well that escalated quickly. "I'm not trying to sabotage anything," he began, sounding timid at first but adding strength to his words towards the end. "And you're right, we shouldn't rush into things – but what more can we do, really? And the note," he took a chance and took it from the detective. "I don't know why but I keep remembering this line: 'impulses controlled, but ill-fated'. I think…I think that's us."

In all honestly, Naruto hadn't thought too much about that line; he'd been more concerned with the _fear will swallow angels _bit, but he remembered thinking about that part the day before. The Momochi Department was far more careful than Hatake's Department had ever been, but that caution would amount to nothing because this was _Gaara_ they were dealing with. He didn't know how many times he would have to say it.

"We need to keep moving forward." He continued, looking straight at Zabuza. "There will be consequences, but what we have to understand is that those consequences are inevitable – predetermined even." He let out a breath when he was done, and waited.

He watched Zabuza's chest rise and fall, before the man stepped forward again and stared into the blonde's eyes. "You talk about him like he's some kind of god." He started slowly, condescendingly. "Sabaku Gaara is _just a man_." He whispered hotly. "A man can't know what's going to happen before it happens, a man can't predetermine the fate of ten men, and a man can't control the elements to his liking." The man's voice had begun to steadily rise, and Naruto saw some of the policeman looking at them with their arms crossed. Naruto's eyes couldn't help but fall on Sai who stood a few yards away from the whole scene. His eyes were very near passionless save for an emotion Naruto didn't understand in those orbs. _"Rarity in the sky?"_ Zabuza continued. "There's something called weather channel. Sabaku is smart. Clever. That's what he is. We just have to be smarter, and being smarter means being caref—"

A clap of thunder so loud and so ear shattering broke out, and everyone in the room flinched at the sound. Lightening followed soon after, lighting the room in a series of bright flashes before disappearing and leaving the room a little darker than it'd been a few moments ago. A single strip of water dripped from the ceiling now, wetting the floor. The blonde had to get out of the way so the water didn't fall on him, and the floor beneath creaked beneath his feet as he stepped back.

"What are we—"

_Ccchhhhhh_…

Silence.

…Save for the sound of white noise coming from the television.

Naruto twitched. It was like the entire room was holding their breath.

Lee was the first to exhale. He laughed nervously. "The lightening must be tempering with the wires around this place." He said, gesturing lamely to the black and white static-screen. "If we just…" he walked up to the television, the floor creaked horribly beneath his shoes. He crouched down so he was right in front of the screen, and moved to turn off the television.

"Be careful, Lee." And that was Zabuza, warning the detective with a growl.

"I am—"

_Cchrhhh—mmmm__…_

The screen on the television suddenly turned dark, and a humming sound came from it.

"Lee! I said, to be care—"

"I'm not touching anything!" Lee countered back, looking from Zabuza to the television.

Meanwhile Naruto was staring at the dark screen with eyes that wanted to leave his eye sockets. There was something blinking on the corner of the screen. A word. Not. An acronym.

VHS.

VHS.

The letters kept blinking.

"Turn off that television, Lee."

"Wait," the detective said. He was staring hard at the television now, and unfolding the note again. "We have to see how this all connects." His eyes seemed to scan the contents, and another crack of thunder sounded in the otherwise quiet room.

Zabuza growled once, before he turned around and barked to the others. "Get to your posts. Unit one upstairs, unit two, the front door, and unit three, backup unit four down in the basement. Lee, Sai, and I will stay up here. Leave your radios on!" he yelled after the men who were scrambling out of the room.

"Now Lee—" Zabuza began, but the detective interrupted him by putting a hand.

"Do you hear that?" the green clad man half-whispered. He pointed to the VCR. "It's loading."

Naruto indeed heard the muffled reel of sounds coming from the machine. He was standing right in front of the window, quite awkwardly. Time from time he would look up Sai, who wasn't looking at him but was looking steadfastly at the television.

Suddenly.

_Swioo__…_

Naruto took a sharp intake of breath, stepping back a moment as the television turn to static before an image began to appear on the screen.

"Unbelievable…"

Naruto looked at the image on the screen, and his heart fell to his stomach.

It was as if there was a camera tied to the ceiling of a room. A bedroom. So what the four of them saw on the screen was the top view of a small bed.

And a boy lying on that bed.

Staring at the camera.

Naruto put a hand to his mouth. Lee said the words before he could.

"It's Gaara."

Naruto shivered once.

The boy on the screen lay very, very still. Deathly still. And his eyes. They were dim as they stared up at the camera in the ceiling.

And why was there a camera on the ceiling?

After long moments where the boy did nothing but the stare, Lee spoke. "Why would Sabaku want us to see this…?" he asked no one in particular. "I'm trying to find the answers in the letter. Cold foreigner…lying in pieces and striking the boards of wooden flesh…? No, that's not…"

Meanwhile the blonde was trying to figure out how the hell the detective could even be speaking when the live image of Gaara as a child was on the television screen.

"We need to take this back to the department." Zabuza spoke up. "We need to figure out when this was recorded and try to—"

The white noise on the screen seemed to escalate for a moment, before it descended back to the usual drone. Only now…

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

Only now the boy on the screen was moving. Or at least his mouth was.

Almost at the same time, the four men leaned forwards to hear the words that seemed to be coming out of the boy's mouth.

"It's…" and that was Lee, with his face practically in the screen. "mostly not understandable…" he finished.

Naruto bit the inside of his mouth and listened hard, but Lee was right. There was so much white nose that all he could really hear from the boy was _ha-wasp-pe-wasp__…_

"What is he saying?" and that was Sai, surprising Naruto by actually saying something without being prodded.

"He's not saying anything." Zabuza was leaning back again, looking frustrated and impatient.

"Wait," Lee was holding a hand up again. "I can almost…" he put a hand on one of the knobs and turned up the volume, but the white noise raised as well as the sound of the boy's whispering. His soft, soft whispering as he stared with dead eyes at the camera on the ceiling.

And why was there a camera on the ceiling?

"Father," Lee was saying, and his eyes weren't even on the image anymore; they were closed in concentration. "Father why…" Lee paused, blinked, and looked up. "Father why have you forsaken me." he said, looking at the other three. "He's saying it over and over again."

Naruto made a noise of confusion. _Father, why have you forsaken me?_ Where had he heard that before? He tried to listen harder to the sounds coming from the television and gradually, the nonsensical _ha-wasp-pewasp-psh-wasph-aa-waspe-wasp_, turned into _father why waspe wasp you forsaken waspe me._

And Naruto couldn't stand the eyes. Even the young Gaara had a way with them. A piercing way. They searched through Naruto, those eyes, and left no stone unturned in trying to find a crevice to rest in his soul. Those eyes went though him, even in their passiveness – how could the eyes of someone so young be filled with such pain—

"Look!" and that was Lee again, shifting in his crouched position and widening his eyes at the screen.

Naruto watched with his heart in his throat, as the image seemed to shiver, before there was a movement on the bottom right hand of the screen. A door was opening. And someone was coming into the room.

Naruto took one look at the blondeness atop the intruder's hand, the strange blue robe that trailed the person as he made his way into the room, and knew.

Even before dark eyes took one look at the camera on the ceiling to reveal a young, and solemn face, Naruto knew.

"Oh my God." His hands went back to his mouth, and he took a step back. "_Oh my God_."

_Please_. The word seemed to scream and whisper in his ear. _Please let it not be_—

"What's wrong with you, boy." Zabuza was asking him, but Naruto was shaking his head and trying to pry his eyes away the screen but not being able to—

"Boy!"

Naruto started, and his hands fell from his mouth as he turned to stare at the chief with wide, wide eyes. It took him a moment to realize that he was practically hyperventilating.

"What's wrong with you?" And the chief had to side step a string of dripping water from the ceiling to get to the blonde.

"The smell is getting worse." And that was Sai, sounding lost, but staring straight at the television like he would never look away.

"Boy. Naruto." Naruto blinked and stared back at Zabuza, who was glaring at him with a tinge of concern in his eyes. He had a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "What the hell—"

"Mother of God."

Zabuza looked away from Naruto, and the blonde didn't know what the man saw when he looked back at the television, but it was enough for his face to fall, and for the bronze color of his skin to ashen. "What is this." His voice came out uncharacteristically soft, and is hand feel from Naruto's shoulder. "_What is this_?" he repeated, his voice rising, and he stepped completely away from Naruto to face the television.

Naruto refused to look at the screen. But he could hear.

_Father why have you forsaken me father why have you forsaken me _(Gaara)_ father why have you _(nnngh Gaara)_ forsaken why father have you _(like that Gaara)_ forsaken me father why _(just like that)_—_

And Naruto felt like he would vomit. Because he could hear.

_Haaahh__…__.haaaah__…__all of it, Gaara__…__so lovely__…__father why have you__…__take all of me, Gaara__…__.forsaken me__…__so lovely__…__ father why have__…__haaaah__…__nngh__…__you forsaken me__…__I'm yours, Gaara__…__father—_

"What is this shit?!" And the chief's exclamation could be called nothing if not a roar. Naruto saw him do a brash movement of anger from the corner of his eye, but he still wouldn't look at the television, God help him he would not look at the television—

"All right," and that was Lee, sounding like he'd have to drink a gallon of water to relieve his dry and cracked mouth. "I-I think we've seen enough of this—"

And there another crack of thunder, like clockwork, and it was like the small house shook with the sound of it.

"The smell is getting worse—"

"Shut the hell up about the smell, Sai!" Zabuza, turned to scream at the man, his eyes wide and flustered as the sounds emitted from the television and Lee was trying to turn the television off but it wouldn't turn off and Sai was staring at the television with emotion it was emotion there was emotion in his eyes his passionlessness replaced with a narrow fear that glared it glared at the television screen and Naruto was still hearing the sounds and it seemed as if they were getting louder the moans were getting louder and the father the father why have you forsaken me father why have you forsaken on repeat on repeat why have you forsaken me why did you forsake him father and there was water coming from the ceiling and Sai was right the smell the smell was getting worse and the floors were creaking under the weight of his feet and the dampness of the wood and Naruto could remember the letter that Gaara wrote he could remember the board of wooden flesh he remembered the laying in pieces but he didn't understand he wouldn't have been able to understand were it not for that step back he took and the sinking of the floor board that broke underneath him and he clutched his head to get rid of the sounds and the smell the smell the smell went straight to his eyes and made them water as his feet sank into the floor boards and Lee was shouting at Naruto to wait and Zabuza was shouting at Naruto to stop and Sai was shouting at nothing because Sai doesn't shout Sai doesn't shout and it smells so bad it smells so bad what is this smell and (Naruto) too many sounds at once (_nnngh, yes Gaara_) and why was his foot stuck and (Naruto!) why was his foot stuck—

"Naruto!"

Naruto started so violently that the strangled gasp that leapt out of him seemed to claw out of his throat and leave a scar there. He was breathing hard, and he was trying not to understand the things that were hitting him fast, like the sounds of the television that Lee still couldn't turn off, the hole the weight of his right foot had made onto the creaking wooden floor, and the stench so foul that it was licking his neck and tasting his eyeballs.

"Lift your foot, Naruto." And that was Lee, abandoning the television that he still wasn't able to turn off and crouching under Naruto instead, seemingly unaffected by the horrid smell that came from the ground where Naruto's foot sank into the wood.

The blonde didn't realize that he was murmuring to himself, saying nonsense, repeated things like "no, no, no" as his mind and his heart couldn't take it anymore because it was bad enough he'd met the man in person, bad enough he'd been in the same cell and he'd heard his story, but to actually hear the sounds of the malevolence forced upon an innocent child and to know that despite his past the murderer would still have to be apprehended and perhaps someday killed and—

"The smell is coming from here."

And Lee finally had him out of the hole he'd made, and was looking up at the blonde with concerned eyes and saying "he's in shock" and trying to offer smiles but failing because they were all so fake—

And Naruto was starting to come back to himself, starting to inhale and exhale like a normal person instead of the exhaust tube of a sports car but the smell was hitting him in a way that it wouldn't have while he was still under, but what kept him from fully grasping the situation were the damn sounds coming from the television, he had to block them out, he had to block them out, and—

"Christ in heaven," Lee was whispering, and he was pulling the floor boards that were near Naruto's feet, and Zabuza was beside him, pulling and ripping at each board until the smell was so pungent that he could smell it over the sounds of Yashamaru's moaning on the T.V. And so Naruto sought that smell, bending over to help peel the wood from it's foundation and examine the source of the foul stench that seemed to explode across the room now, like an outside wind bouncing in the rectangular confines of a small windowless room.

And it was the fact that he was using the smell as an agent to forget the sounds that he missed the truth that hung under his nose and in the air, made him forget the lines that Lee had spoken moments before, the lines that would explain the stench and the blood that had begun to stain their fingers as they pulled at the wood. Lee had understood before the blonde did. His hands hovering and shaking over the mess, and Zabuza had understood before the both of them, and had been staring at the sight under the floor boards, but it took Naruto's desperate fingers touching the milky and elastic rotting torso of flesh for him come back from the panicking, and insane corners of his mind, to realize what he was doing, what he was digging up, and exactly where the smell was coming from.

And it was like time had slowed down. It seemed everything had muffled. The cracking of thunder came as a warbling soft sound, and then Lee who'd begun to speak, was shouting something at Zabuza and at Naruto with his usual animated voice only Naruto couldn't make out those words; they were a warping sound.

But he didn't need to hear.

Because he remembered the words from the letter.

He remembered—

_Cold foreigner, laying in pieces and striking the boards of wooden flesh—_

Only this was no foreigner, Naruto thought staring down at the torso beneath the floor boards, blackened with time and marred with cuts and bruises that seemed to be inflamed with pus and caked blood.

No, this was no foreigner.

Cold, yes. He'd always been cold. Cold when he was alive and cold in death.

But not a foreigner. And Naruto wouldn't have needed the jagged carving of the name on the rotting torso's chest to know.

_Sasuke_.

"It all makes sense…" And that was Lee's voice coming out as whisper. The blonde was surprised he could hear the detective over the sound of his thrumming heart. "the letter…this body….and the video tape." Lee looked at Naruto, but the blonde couldn't look him in the eye. His lips were shaking, his eyeballs couldn't hold still. He opted to look at Sai instead, who was still staring steadfastly at the television screen, his eyes losing the emotion Naruto had thought he'd seen in them before and acquiring that emotionlessness again.

There was steady breathing coming from the T.V, but Naruto wouldn't look, he would never allow himself to look—

"We have to get out of here."

And Naruto was falling out of it again. He was falling in and out of consciousness with open eyes and fluctuating breaths. The words that he could hear seemed to stand by themselves, without the person who said them.

"We have to take the body with us."

"We need the others."

"We can do it ourselves."

"We can't do it ourselves."

And then there was a movement in front of him, and Naruto watched as two hands were pulling more wood from the rotting torso to expose the entire body but—

"God, damn it."

"It's just a torso."

"Where's the rest of it?"

"Maybe scattered across the house. The letter. Laying in pieces, it said."

"Let's just get this one out."

"We'll need help."

"We can do it ourselves."

And Naruto was falling on his butt, unable to crouch wit his knees bent anymore. He was getting tired out, and it was as if the smell of rotting, decomposing flesh was affecting his brain and making him see and hear things, because in the next moment there was a sudden shout, and still Naruto couldn't attribute the sound to a person; the sounds stood by themselves. And Naruto didn't know if it was a cry from Lee or a cry from Zabuza but he knew that there was a smoke rising from the ground and invading his vision, his vision that blurred in and out of focus as he stared at Sai who still didn't look away from the television, and at the space between two walls where one would enter into the large room they were in—

And there were shouts—

"It's a trap!"

"Where's the smoke coming from?!"

"It was moving the body. Something triggered when we moved the body!"

And still Naruto didn't know whose voice belonged to who, but he wanted both to stop because he was getting a headache and feeling like he was going to vomit and the moaning from the television screen was picking up again, as if the video tape was on constant replay and _father why have you forsaken me father why have you—_

"Get Naruto out here! Sai! Sai!"

"We have to…"

And when Naruto blinked hard once and opened his eyes again he saw Lee standing and swaying, and he saw Zabuza doing the same. Standing and swaying with their eyes rolling to the top of their heads as an odorless smoke filling the air and Naruto eyes went wide, finally coming half back to consciousness as he saw the chief fall to the ground first, followed by the detective who must have broken something as he fell because there was a sickening crack and—

_Posh! Posh!_

Naruto shouted once, scrambling backwards into the wall and exhaling hard when he heard gunshots. And as he scrambled he realized that the voices he'd heard moments before weren't just the voices of Lee and Zabuza, but the voices of many men, for there were several people on the floor of the room now, moaning and twitching on the ground as the smoke began to clear.

And Naruto was hyperventilating again.

"Wh-wha-wha-_wha—"_

The cries of the detective and the chief must have brought a few of the other officers from their positions and into this large room. And now they were all scattered on the ground like twitching flies and—

And Naruto was alone.

A sound came out of Naruto, like a dog's wine, only slightly more human, and he brought his hand to his mouth.

He was alon—

No.

_Movement_.

Naruto started when he saw something move from the side of the room. He inched farther away first, with his back still against the wall, but stopped when he saw the familiar blue uniform shifting on the ground. The body on the floor was lifting, albeit jerkily and unnaturally, before Naruto saw Sai's head look up from the floor, his eyes dazed and confused as he attempted to look around.

"Sai!" Naruto let his shout of relief fill the room, and this time his scrambling brought him off the floor, and the speed with which he stood up made the still apparent smoke swipe against his eyes. A once his blue orbs began to water. He gasped and wiped at them before a sense of panic began to rise in him again. Would he fall unconscious as well, now? Would he fall like the rest of them, and fall victim to whatever horrors lie before a group of defenseless people?

"Sai," he said again, and he let his eyes open, and he saw the said policeman finally standing up right, with his hand clutching his head. Naruto called out to him again.

And then things happened very fast.

Naruto saw the gun before he saw the arm that held the gun. Naruto saw the arm before he saw the body that the arm belonged to. And Naruto saw the strangely innocent look in Sai's eyes before it happened.

And it was as if Sai's head exploded before the gunshot sounded. A gunshot so loud that it rivaled the thunder that rumbled outside.

And Naruto screamed.

It was an ugly, wretched sound that ripped out of his throat and made it bleed, he could feel his throat bleeding—

Or was it just the splattered blood from the gush of Sai's brain that splattered onto his the sides of his face and the _inside of his mouth_ there was blood in his mouth blood that was red like the oozing brain of Sai's lifeless body and blood like the red hair that belonged to the man who'd simply had to extend an arm, pull a trigger, and kill and innocent man.

Gaara.

And it wasn't like before.

Because before Naruto had felt a sense of duty.

And before that Naruto had felt anger.

But now all he felt was fear.

It _swallowed_ him.

It swallowed him whole.

He tried to scream. He wanted to scream. But the only noise was the sound of small utterances of whimpers, small gasps of breath – and the moans of Gaara's uncle from the television screen.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

And here came the onslaught of tears. Naruto let out a wail that sounded like a dying dog's cry, and he tried to put his hands to his mouth but his hands were shaking they were shaking his whole body was shaking and—

"Do you remember yet?"

Gaara stood in front of the blonde, barely past the space between the two walls that would let one into the large room they were in. His eyes were the same as they always were. Without passion. Without emotion. But alive, somehow. Alive and menacing – only it was the kind of menace he didn't fight for; it was a type of menacing that was just there, existing and offhanded. Natural.

Naruto would have been defecating himself were it not for the fact that he'd eaten nothing that morning, or the day before that in a loss of appetite due to fear – a fear that was nothing compared to the terror he felt now; it was like spiders were crawling in his insides and pulling every part of him, tempering with every nerve and chocking him, controlling his limbs and making them tremble in the pit of horror he felt.

There was blood on Gaara's face. Sai's blood. It marked his left cheek and ear, and littered like drawn claws onto half of his forehead. He was like a two-faced man.

"Do you remember." And the voice was like ice, always like ice, smoothing across words with an effortlessness that wasn't warranted given the horrific situation and—

The redhead stepped forward.

Naruto cried out, something pathetic and ugly, before he moved backwards, tripping on a body but not falling down. He moved back until he was almost at the wall, and his chest was heaving and his face was grimacing in absolute terror and—

"Try to remember."

And Naruto was wailing again. "_Please_," he didn't know what he was pleading for, but he went on, shaking his head and saying the word over and again.

And to think, before this, he wasn't afraid of death. And to think, that before this, he thought his duty to help capturing Gaara meant that he would be spared somehow, from the horrors that came with being near the man.

He was a fool.

He wasn't safe.

He was going to die here.

"Please, _please_—"

Gaara took another step forward.

And Naruto slammed himself backwards into the wall with a cry. He held his hand out, not sure what he thought kind of defense his mere hands would give him when the man had a gun. Naruto looked at the gun now, held loosely in surprisingly un-bloodied pale fingers.

If the man noticed the movement he didn't show. Instead he took another step forward, and another and another, and Naruto tried to flee, tried to move to the left or the right to get away from the murderer who came near him but it was like his legs were locked. He could move no more. He could only wait. So Naruto did the only thing he could do.

He closed his eyes.

He closed his and brought his fingers to cover them. And he begged in his mind for the redhead to make this quick. He begged in his mind for Gaara to just take the gun and shoot him between the eyes so he wouldn't have to feel this fear anymore, so he wouldn't have to feel anything anymore—

The blonde gasped when he felt something cold against the hands he put over his eyes. His legs began to sink, but like before, something pinned him before he could fall.

A body.

Gaara's body.

Naruto cried as cold hands pulled his fingers from his eyes, ever so slowly, and with such care. The blonde kept his eyes closed though, as the body that pinned him held him there like a solid thing, a thing that would never go away.

"Open your eyes."

And what was it about that voice made Naruto want to open his eyes as he was told? What was it about that voice, that didn't sound threatening, or authoritative – but light, passive – like a listlessness that would never judge, would never hurt—

Naruto opened his eyes.

Green. Teal. Blue. The eyes were all those things and more.

Naruto blinked rapidly, staring at those orbs.

They were so close. Close enough that he thought his eyes would cross.

"Do you remember the day, yet?" And the voice was a murmur, lower than the awful sounds coming from the television. "It was a Sunday. I saw you before you saw me."

Naruto was making odd noises from the back of his throat. The fear was building up again, but he was getting lost in the redhead's eyes. They were pulling him in like a spiraling vortex. From afar it looked at if Gaara had no pupils, but up close Naruto could see them – and they were strangest graying color, that made Naruto if the man was blind—

Gaara shifted once—

And Naruto took in a sharp breath and pushed back at him with both hands, while closing his eyes. He didn't know why he felt like closing them would make this situation any better—

And suddenly things were crashing on him again and Naruto hated, hated, _hated _how his mind moved in and out of varied stages of panic and he was panicking again, whimpering, _please, please, please_ as he brought hands to Gaara's shoulder's and _pushed_, and cried and _pushed_—

And it was all for nothing. Gaara was like a rock. Unmoving. Immovable. It was as if the man wasn't even breathing; Naruto could feel no breath hitting his face.

Naruto, out of a curiosity he didn't know he could feel in a situation like this, peeked one eye open, and saw that Gaara wasn't looking at him at all. He was holding him with his body, and with his hands on the blonde's wrists, but his head was turned to the side to show a jaw that was all angles.

Gaara was looking at the television.

…_haaahh__…__.haaaahh__…__.all of it Gaara__…__.take all of me__…_

Naruto's bottom lip quivered. Everything was so messed up. A man who'd been ruined by his uncle, and who was going to be persecuted until the day he was behind bars, or, at this rate – dead.

And Gaara was watching himself getting ruined right before his eyes.

Naruto squeezed his own shut, letting more tears cascade down his cheeks before he opened them with a sort of wet gasping sound.

Gaara's un-bloodied cheek faced him. His skin was pale there, down to the odd blue veins that travelled down his neck. Only living things had veins like that. Gaara was a living thing. A living human being.

And he was a murderer.

A murderer who'd been ruined as a child.

Naruto sobbed again.

Everything was so messed up.

And the sounds.

_..nnngh__…__nngh__…__father why__…__nnggh__…__forsaken me, father__…_

Naruto bit his lip and looked at the profile of the redhead. Watching him as he watched the screen, and wondered if this, if all of this would have been different were it not for a man who so disgustingly claimed to love him had not violated him in such a foul and obscene way—

But what could the blonde do now? How could he do anything? What was done, was done. And there was nothing he could do.

Naruto grimaced.

…_all of me Gaara__…__all of me__…_

"I—…I'm so so-rry." Naruto's voice broke as he said it, and it was barely above a whisper. "I'm so sorry…"

And Naruto's heart didn't fall into his stomach when there was obvious pause on Gaara's end. There was a slow blink, and teal eyes shifted to look at Naruto without turning his head.

Naruto didn't let himself look away, but his breath was hitching again.

When Gaara turned his head it was a slow turn, and his eyes bore into Naruto's steadfastly. "You're sorry." It wasn't a question, but the statement was light. Gaara's hands were on Naruto's wrists, holding them there, and the blonde wondered for a moment were the gun had gone, the gun that Gaara'd shot Sai with, Sai who lay immobile on the floor with his face down, and his brain spilling under a pool of dark blood.

Naruto sobbed again and ripped his eyes away from the sight. But then he was looking at Gaara's eyes again, so he put his head down instead.

"Look at me."

And again there was something about the voice that made Naruto do what it told him to do.

And again it was the green. The teal. The blue.

Naruto wanted to say, _what do you want from me, what have you done, why me—_

But his mouth wouldn't work. He didn't think it ever would.

"That pain." Gaara's voice was a husky breath. "You feel that…for me?" Gaara seemed to pause, and his large eyes searched the blonde's face. Naruto didn't know what he looked like, but he could feel the fresh tears, the caked snot, the cold sweat – and he was so close to soiling himself. The fear was hitting him in a place that would gather bile and spew it out of his mouth or find stored liquid that he'd not yet put to waste and rid him of it now if Gaara kept looking at him like he was the only thing in the room, the only person in the world—

"You're repulsed." Gaara muttered, and like a human being he blinked. It was a slow. Languid. "At me. For me. Why, Naruto?" And his name on Gaara's tongue was like a play-thing always a play-thing Naruto was a play-thing and this was all just a big game like Lee'd predicted, Lee who was probably dead like all the others were probably dead and—

"Listen."

Naruto's orbs shook as teal stared back at his blue.

"Listen to him." a whisper.

…_haaah__…__haaah__…__haaah__…_

"Please," Naruto pleaded—

"Look."

The blonde shook his head, slowly then faster and faster, as he realized what the redhead wanted him to do.

"Are you afraid…" Gaara started lowly. "…that the guilt will eat you alive?" His face moved closer to Naruto's, and like an idiot the blonde looked away, so the television was in his view. He caught one glimpse of a nude, moving back before he tried to face forward again, but found Gaara's face so close to his that he had to turn to the side again.

"_Please_,"

"_Look_." And that was the first time the man had a tinge of something in his voice. Something that sounded a lot like _"or else"_ except the voice was still soft like a suggestion.

And so Naruto looked. His eyes wandered at first, his eyes shutting, and then looking up at the ceiling, but there was a shift on Gaara's part, and Naruto was startled into looking at the screen again.

And when his eyes were finally locked, he couldn't look away.

Yashamaru's back was a pale thing, and it jerked and moved like a languid, old thing. His robes pooled at the base of that back, hiding his rear-end from view. But it wasn't the man's movement that made Naruto want to cry out; it was the look in Gaara's eyes, the eyes that would come into view from time and time when the despicable uncle's head would bend to the _child's_ chest, or burrow in the _child's_ neck.

Gaara's eyes were without passion. The same eyes he had now. They were dead, even as his mouth moved to repeat over and over again _father why have you forsaken—_

"Tears for me." Gaara's breath was cold on Naruto's ear. And how did he get to his ear anyway. Naruto's been so distracted, so distraught with what he was watching, that he hadn't realized when Gaara's hand left his wrists all together, and opted to put a hand on the wall beside his head instead. The other hand was coming up to Naruto's face, to the space under his eyes, and catching the tears that leaked with every rapid blink. " Tears for a murderer."

Naruto let out an odd exhale, and words wanted to come out of his mouth, but his lips trembled instead.

"Empathy for a monster." The redhead murmured, and his eyes were wandering across the blonde's face, lingering on his lips, before they went back to Naruto's eyes. "Empathy for me."

"You—" But Naruto's voice broke as his voice box tried to work around phlegm and a reddening throat. "Y-y-you-r…Your un-cle…" Naruto looked to his left, away from the T.V and away from Gaara's unrelenting eyes. "…h-h-he's the mo-nster—"

Gaara said nothing for a long time. The blonde could only feel his cold eyes and his cold breath on the side of his face.

Finally, "We are both monsters."

Naruto shivered once. Gaara's voice had deepened.

"But you…" another shift, and Naruto brought his free hands to Gaara's shoulders to push him away again. "You're golden." Gaara moved against the blonde, and Naruto had to grit his teeth when the man had his a leg between his. "An angel."

Naruto paused, eyes looking back at the redhead's in a slow shock. "I—" he stopped himself when he saw movement behind Gaara.

Sai was twitching on the ground.

"Wha—"

"Naruto." And then Gaara had the blonde's attention again.

But he couldn't hold it for long, because blue eyes were back on Sai's twitching body – and Naruto knew that it wasn't because the man was still alive, he knew it was because of dying nerves and other such things but—

"_Why_?" Naruto was looking at Gaara's again, and there was helplessness and a deep sadness in his blue eyes instead of the anger that would have been there were it not for the damned video that continued, after all this time, to play—_"_Why did you_ kill him?"_ His voice came out like a breath and his face was grimacing into that look of pain and hurt as he half glared at the taller man. He wasn't gaining his confidence back, far from it, but he knew that if the redhead planned on killing him, he would have done it by now.

"Why did you—"

"Think only of me."

Naruto stared at the man before him. Gaara's eyes became dark, and there was a crinkle above his nose that made Naruto think that if he had eyebrows, they would be furrowed.

"What?"

"Think only of me." Gaara repeated, and his eyes were losing that tinge of darkness that was there before, but acquiring something else, something more than his usual lack of emotion. It was almost as if the man looked confused. "You make me…_irrational_." Gaara's eyes were narrowing now. "You make me… _irresponsible_. And irresponsibility, _irrationality_, is why people _die_." The hand on Naruto's waist was squeezing so hard it hurt.

"Stop—" Naruto grunted, trying to move away again but the taller man held him still. "That…._hurts_—"

"Only think of me." the man whispered again, and his hand did not relent on the blonde's waist – only moved lower.

And Naruto didn't understand why the hand was there, he didn't understand why Gaara was moving against him. The only thing he understood was the fear that was building in him again, the fear that seemed to be coming at him from the side, twisting over his back and finding purchase in his heart.

"Please," and there was the pleading again, because Gaara's hands were snaking to the front of pants.

"Don't fear me." And for the first time Gaara's breath was hot on his skin. "I can…" Gaara paused, and his eyes dimmed. "I can make you feel something…other than this fear." His hand travelled from Naruto side, and landed square on his crotch.

Naruto jerked again, and his eyes narrowed despite his fear. "_What_?" he started, but he didn't know what he wanted to say, he didn't even understand what Gaara was _trying to do—_

And Naruto was trying to let his anger take him now, was trying to find the will to push him away. He tried to feign that anger and growl and glare at the redhead before him, but it was futile. His voice came out like weak thing. "What are you _doing_," he began, and his hands were pushing Gaara's stiff, immovable shoulders, but they remained that way: stiff and immovable and Gaara didn't reply with words but _movement_, a stroking and constant movement that began on the outside of Naruto's clothes moved to the inside of his pants and sounds were coming out of Naruto's mouth like whimpers only they were strange and low, and muffled and—

"_Wait_—"

Because Gaara's hand had somehow snuck into his briefs, and there was—

C-cold fingers on his skin Gaara's fingers were _freezing_, and then they were warm, and then they were hot, they were _hot_ and Naruto could taste the blood on in his mouth as he panted and grunted and—

"—_nnngh_,"

—and Gaara's mouth was on his neck and was sucking the skin and his palms _tugged_ and his fingertips _rubbed_ and the redhead stayed silent unlike the television that graoned with static, a child's whisper, and an uncles moans and to add to those sounds were Naruto's pathetic grunts of protest and his grunts of reluctant _need_ and when Gaara's mouth wasn't on his neck his eyes were on Naruto, they stayed steadfast at the dimming of the blonde's blue eyes, and the tearing of those bright orbs, and the biting of those bloodied lips, and Naruto was—

"_Please_,"

—protesting to nothing and no one because his pushing and shoving of Gaara's chest was turning into clutching and holding of the man's shoulders and into the burying of his face into Gaara's neck and Gaara smelled like the wind on an autumn day and Naruto's mouth was open as he panted and the reluctance in his moving body graduated to a desperate riding of his hips against the skilled hand on his length and Naruto was crying and he was shaking and he was sobbing because everything about this was so wrong and Gaara still stared at him like a hawk and Sai was still bleeding on the floor and Yashamaru was still moaning from the television and Gaara was still a murderer and his hand felt so _fucking good_—

"—_fuck_."

—and there's a final squeeze and Naruto's voice gets high, and then his voice gets low and his exhale is a moan as his knees buckle and—

"Haaaaahh—"

And then it's over.

A twitch. A second twitch.

Flaccidity.

Limpness.

_Shame_.

"Only favor me your tongue," and Gaara's voice was like a butterfly, tickling the skin on the cheek where he chose to utter those words. "and I shall not speak against the sun."

Naruto said nothing.

"It was a Sunday." Gaara murmured, and his hands were circled around the blonde's torso, and he was keeping him up with an effortlessness that Naruto was too far away to think too much about. "And you were alone. You were searching, always searching. But you waited with me. You stayed with a stranger, and ignored your pain. Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara's voice was a breath. "_Think only of me_."

Naruto let out a sob. It was hitting him now, suddenly, like a ton of bricks. What Gaara'd just done, what just he'd just _let_ Gaara do—

"No one will be spared of the spectrum of the inevitably in death." Gaara murmured, and his hold on Naruto was slacking, and he was leaning the blonde against the wall. "But you will live despite that, Uzumaki Naruto. Angels don't die."

He took a step back then, and it took a moment for Naruto to realize he was standing, albeit leaning, on his own.

And he watched Gaara walk away. He watched and did nothing to stop him.

And when the man left, just as easily as he came, Naruto couldn't help but realize that there was true silence around him for the first time since he'd entered the small, desolate home. The television was now a quiet static screen. Water had stopped dripping from the ceiling.

The storm had stopped.

In fact the sun shone past the thoroughly stained window, it's rays so bright and hot that it trailed an innocent ray into the room.

Naruto fainted in it.

* * *

**Word Count: **18,294/ in total 38,138 (kind of insane)

**Authors Note:**

IT'S BEEN EIGHT MONTHS.

I was trying desperately hard to end this chapter in a better way but I couldn't, and I'm so sorry – but there you have it! Chapter fiftenn and sixteen in all it's glory. Again, I am SO SORRY for the long wait, and if there are any mistakes in this chapter, I apologize.

I think I did a bit of experimental writing in this chapter, and I hope that didn't throw anyone off. If there are any questions feel free to ask me, and there are so many things I want to write right now, but I'm so tired so I'll just leave you with:

Is anyone upset that Sai is dead?

And did Naruto's sudden panic seem believable, or did it throw you reader's for a loop?

That was the trouble I had most with the chapter: trying to figure out what I should do with Sai, and how to make that last bit work.

But whatever. Thank you to all those who are still here, an I'M SO SORRY to those people who I've made wait a little too long.

Please read and review!


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